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The signs, as AI reproductions. Tap one for its page, photos of the originals and the record.
Primary
- Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1960 to 1961, works of art and prints.
- US Copyright Office Virtual Card Catalog (vcc.copyright.gov): 48 cards under Schorr Sign Service.
- American Coin-Op, 1961 to 1963 issues, via the Internet Archive (print disabled lending).
- HathiTrust full text search: Launder-matic Age, Drycleaning World, American Laundry Digest.
- Queens Yellow Pages (classified telephone directories), 1960-61, 1965-66 and 1971-72, Signs heading, on microfilm at the New York Public Library, Irma and Paul Milstein Division; pages located and scanned by NYPL reference staff, October 2026. Scans.
- US Census 1950; BIRLS death file; Social Security and burial records for the Schorr family.
Comparison material
- Volk clip art sheets 1954 to 1963, photographed by Bart Solenthaler on Flickr. Linked, not reposted.
- CSA Images, item C829223.
- Surviving signs: the yellow reference set, a Facebook Marketplace listing of three blue framed signs (Philadelphia area), and an August 2023 public Facebook group post from an Alabama home laundry. Sign photos appear on the Sign Catalog with their source in each caption.
- Trade ad crops from American Coin-Op, 1961 to 1963, each captioned with issue and page and linked to the issue on the Internet Archive.
Institutions asked
| Who | Result |
|---|---|
| Smithsonian NMAH | Nothing held |
| Hagley Library | Nothing held |
| Winterthur Library | Nothing held |
| UC Santa Barbara | Acknowledged, no answer yet |
| Marlite | Inquiry drafted |
| Copyright Office records | Quote request drafted |
Design images
Top image on the home page and history pages: Digital recreation, made from a photo of a Brooklyn LAUNDROMAT storefront sign, with the number changed to 8015. Home laundry room on Order a Sign: digital recreation.
Washer wall: digital recreation. Modeled on a photo of 1971 coin laundry washers, Anciennes laveuses du relais St Francois 1971 by Mario Hains, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Dryers, orange chairs, corkboard and terrazzo floor: digital recreations. None of these is a photograph of a real laundromat.
An open file on the Laundesigns of Schorr Sign Service, Glendale, Queens. Sign images are faithful digital recreations made from photos of the originals; each sign page links to the record. The recreations were generated with Grok, chosen after comparing image quality across several AI models.
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