Globe created metal-on-wood photo cuts from publicity stills sent by promoters and artists. The more than 20,000 cuts provide a comprehensive overview of Globe’s customers, from the famous to the forgotten.

Laying Down a Groove

Non-photo cuts, many hand-drawn and hand-carved, gave Globe's posters a distinctive visual style. Blocks like "Live" and "In Person" were often incorporated into posters to add bounce and pop, and headliners' names got the syncopated treatment as well.

Globe required large quantities of type, both machine-made and hand-carved, to keep up with the high-volume, fast-paced workload. Wood type in the collection ranges from under an inch to several feet high, from highly condensed to super wide.

Posters were Globe’s bread and butter, from small orders for church carnivals to big stacks promoting national tours by music’s biggest stars.

Beyond posters, Globe printed smaller promotional items including handbills, show tickets and passes, and bumper stickers. Globe’s owners also saved many sketches, hand-cut rubyliths and film used in the printing process, as well as business records that illuminate the inner workings of a large showcard company.

Letterpress shops have their own vocabulary, with words such as quoin, quoin key, stone, chase, furniture, lockup and Ludlow identifying commonly used tools. Globe’s collection includes many of these, some now at use in MICA’s letterpress studio;

As archiving at Globe progresses, connections between the many objects in the collection appear, giving some insight into the inner workings of Globe Poster and how the artists and printers at Globe used the type and cuts at their fingertips to create a unique style.