Archery

1940 · ref. 23840 — 1940. American target archery and home bow making ephemera addressed to George L. Aspinwall 1940 to 1945 documenting how sporting science mail order commerce and workshop practice shaped the equipment choices of a Chestnut Hill archer. The central three page letter comes from Russ Hoogerhyde the six time national champion who answers Aspinwall's complaint about a set of arrows before soliciting his judgment of traditional and Paul E. Klopsteg bow designs. Correspondence invoices instructional sheets and annotated trade literature from Hoogerhyde E. Bud Pierson J. Ellis Mitchell and the Falcon Archery Shop follow Aspinwall from purchasing prepared sinew and glue to comparing limb geometry arrow weight silk backing and the performance of completed bows. Aspinwall George L. Archery Ephemera Archive. Chestnut Hill Massachusetts; Northbrook and Chicago Illinois; Cincinnati Ohio; and Dallas Texas 1940 to 1945. Eight items in 12 leaves principally 8.5 x 11 inches. 1 Hoogerhyde Russ B. Typed letter signed to George L. Aspinwall. Northbrook Illinois August 29 1940. Three pages. Responding to Aspinwall's dissatisfaction with the weight and finish of newly purchased arrows Hoogerhyde explains that shafts were weighed and spine tested before their nocks feathers and cresting were applied. He places shooting performance above uniform scale weight recalling that the "imperfect" set he used at the 1931 National Tournament varied by 52 grains yet enabled him to shoot three perfect ends out of five at 40 yards. The letter then turns to Aspinwall's purchase of two bow types one traditional and one based on Klopsteg's "A Graphic Method of Designing a Bow" published in the June 1939 issue of Ye Sylvan Archer. Hoogerhyde reports selling traditional bows over the newer design by four to one and asks whether Aspinwall's Klopsteg bow developed excessive set in its lower limb under the asymmetrical three finger draw. 2 Pierson E. Bud. Autograph letter signed to George L. Aspinwall. Cincinnati Ohio November 20 1940. One page on illustrated archery tackle letterhead. Pierson acknowledges Aspinwall's five dollar check and shipment of 20 bundles of sinew with enough glue for three bows advising him to apply a medium backing about three sixteenths of an inch thick while wet and to prepare osage wood carefully. 3 Pierson E. Bud. Invoice to George L. Aspinwall. Cincinnati Ohio November 23 1940. One leaf. Records 20 bundles of prepared sinew and one half pint of sinew glue at a total cost of five dollars. 4 Falcon Archery Shop. Loin sinew sales and instruction circular addressed to George L. Aspinwall. Chicago Illinois circa February 21 1945. Two leaves. Announces the return of loin sinew after an absence of nearly two years compares its appearance to "one or two hundred small violin strings dipped in glue and dried within a wrapping" and gives prices for sinew and glue. Aspinwall's pencil calculations a postal money order receipt for $8.58 and the notation "Sent M.O. $8.58 Feb. 21 '45 for 2 orders sinew and glue plus 10% for selected" record his purchase. 5 Pierson Bud and Chas. "Cold Glue Sinew Backing." Cincinnati Ohio undated. One printed leaf with manuscript corrections and numbered procedural changes. The instructions cover preparing yew and osage obtaining beef tendons from slaughterhouses shredding and washing sinew applying it under bandages retillering the finished bow and allowing three weeks to one month for drying. 6 Hoogerhyde Russ. "Directions for Applying Silk Backing." Northbrook Illinois undated. One typed instruction sheet attributing the development of silk backing to physicist Clarence N. Hickman and specifying clamps rosin padding glue and more than 500 pounds of applied tension. 7 Mitchell J. Ellis. "Mitchell Pierson Silk Applicator." Dallas Texas undated. One typed instruction sheet directing the archer to mount silk muslin rubber and plywood in a geared applicator stretch the silk two percent and leave the bow clamped for at least 24 hours. 8 Falcon Archery Shop. "Sinew Backing." Chicago Illinois undated. Two typed leaves with manuscript additions describing the preparation of the bow softening and shredding tendon degreasing the strands maintaining warm glue and positioning the bow during application. Hoogerhyde wrote less than a month after winning his sixth national championship in August 1940 yet his letter treats Aspinwall as a participant in unresolved questions about bow balance and construction. Klopsteg then president of the Central Scientific Company had brought the methods of a physicist and instrument designer to limb geometry while Hickman's experiments addressed arrow oscillation bow efficiency and backing materials. Aspinwall's papers record these ideas outside the laboratory and sporting press where commercial bowyers translated them into customer correspondence and amateurs tested them at the bench and shooting line. The repeated directions for sinew and silk also preserve a transitional workshop culture in which archers sourced animal tendon built clamping fixtures mixed glue altered limb stiffness and annotated printed instructions according to experience. Moderate overall toning old folds staple holes occasional spotting minor edge wear and several short edge tears; manuscript additions and signatures remain legible. Overall good condition. A personal record of scientific experimentation mail order trade and manual craft within American archery during the 1940s. unknown