⏳ PRINTED ON DEMAND — Please allow 2–3 weeks for delivery

This book is printed one copy at a time when you order it. There is no warehouse shelf of these — your copy goes on the press after you check out. Please allow 2–3 weeks from order to delivery.

About this book

This is the manual that taught wounded veterans a trade. Published in 1919 by the U.S. Federal Board for Vocational Education, Show Card Writing: For Disabled Soldiers, Sailors and Marines was part of America's first great vocational rehabilitation effort — training men disabled in the First World War for self-supporting work as show card writers.

The choice of trade was deliberate: show card writing could be done seated, needed little capital, and was in steady demand from every retailer in town. The manual's instruction is practical and encouraging — brush handling, alphabets, and card layouts taught step by step, designed for men learning a new livelihood under difficult circumstances. It stands as both a lettering textbook and a document of unusual humanity in trade publishing.

For historians of the First World War, of disability, and of American vocational education, this 1919 manual is a primary source of real significance. For letterers and sign painters, it remains a sound, straightforward show card course — the fundamentals don't care about the book's occasion. Collectors of unusual trade literature will find few volumes with a story like this one's.

Whether you study history or lettering, this is a book with a purpose beyond its pages. A 1919 manual, and a 1919 promise kept.

Details: 6×9" paperback, black and white interior, cream paper.

⚠️ Please read before ordering — about print quality

This is a print-on-demand reprint of a scanned historical document. The pages were scanned from an original 1919 printing, and the print quality of your book reflects the condition of that original scan.

What that means in plain terms: you may see faded text, uneven inking, age spots, show-through from the back of pages, and other imperfections that were in the 1919 original or introduced by the scanning process. These are preserved as-is — they are not printing defects, and they are not something we can fix.

We are not responsible for the condition of the original source material. If you want a pristine modern typeset book, this isn't it. If you want the actual 1919 book with all its character intact, you're in the right place.

Printed on demand by IngramSpark. One copy at a time — no inventory, no waste.