A few weeks ago I picked up this 1960-edition of the Girl Scout Handbook at an estate sale. I don’t own much ephemera—being in a constant war of thing-like vs. too-much-junk anxieties—but I loved the cover, the illustrations, and I really wanted to spend some time with the content. Not only is the separation of half a century intriguing, I’d always wanted to be a Girl Scout. I think it’s the badges.
Yesterday I looked at the credits page for the first time and was surprised to see the designer for the cover was Alvin Lustig! This particular edition was printed 5 years after Lustig passed away, but there’s still something magical about finding a piece by such a prominent designer, which was used and appreciated (?) by its original intended audience.
That original audience is a little girl named LaBonney Parnell, who gave herself near-perfect scores on all the good citizen quizzes.
Appropriate, as the Olympics are upon us.
Illustrations are by Eleanor Dart and Alison Cummings, neither of whom I can find much on. All images are linked to their large sizes, for deets.
What a positively lovely find! I love it so much; and yeah, I struggle with that inner vs. battle, too. I share a room with my sister and somehow, I don’t think she’ll appreciate being fenced in by ephemera, no matter how beautiful they turn out to be.
Glad you got your hands on this, though. It’s precious.
Yea, I can’t imagine she’d be too thrilled. It could be fun to build a pseudo-wall of books (based on how much you read, I imagine you having pretty epic bookshelves)!