New York OA Trader

There was a recent post on Patch-L from Chris Jensen on the Wabaningo Lodge Emblem Handbook. For those of you who are not familiar with the handbook, it is the precursor to the Blue Book and other modern collecting handbooks. It was published in 1952 and compiled and edited by Dwight W. Bishcel. It is a small booklet running about 100 pages and measured about 5 inches by 7 inches.

The Handbook is broken into several sections, including Regional Emblems, Lodge Emblems, Lodge Totems, and Lodges Without Emblems. It includes black and white photos ( and a few line drawings) of the Emblems (patches) described in the book.

The Emblems pictured in the book are early, and in some cases the first, patch from each represented lodge.

There have been several issues of the Handbook printed over the years, and Chris Jensen provides the following help in identifying them:

#1 - Original 1952 printing. Cover stock is embossed to look like leather. Black and red printing ink on manila color cover stock. Teepee and woods design on the bottom right corner of the cover are printed in black and red. 180 x 125mm (dimension of front cover). All printing on the inner pages is on a smooth semi glossy paper with good quality offset printing (not photocopies). The particular book that I have even has a pale green order form stapled to the inside of the back cover to order more of them directly from Dwight Bishel at $1.25 each.

#2. Copy of 1952 printing (not sure who authorized this reprint). Cover stock is smooth white cover stock. Black and red printing ink on white cover stock. Teepee and woods design on the bottom right corner of the cover are printed in BLACK ONLY. The only red on the cover is the arrow. 177 x 121mm (dimension of front cover). All printing on the inner pages is on a smooth matte finish paper with fair quality offset printing (not photocopies). On the outside of the back cover, is marked in 9mm high red ink letters, “COPY”.

#3. Reprint (probably unauthorized) of Original 1952 printing. Cover stock is light green avacado card stock embossed to look like leather. Black ONLY design on cover (no red ink anywhere). 183 x 124 mm (dimension of front cover). All printing on the inner pages is on a rough finish paper with poor quality photocopy looking print. Not marked “COPY” on any pages of this book.

The images are mine, but I believe that they correspond to Chris’s descriptions.

John Pannellhas create a Wabaningo page here. There you can see the actual patches on each photo page in full color. It is probably the only time most of us will ever be able to see these patches in this format.

As you might expect, with many first issues from each lodge and certainly issued on or prior to 1952, this is not an easy set to complete. To some it is the holy grail of OA patch collecting.

There are a dozen New York Lodges represented in the WAB listings including Ranachqua #4 R1a, Chappegat #15 X3, Sisilija #19 R1, Hanigus #47 R1, Wakpominee #48 A1, Suanhacky #49 R1b, Ty-Onhi #95 C1, Wakoda #246 A1, Ta-Oun-Ya-Wat-Ha #268 C1, Tuscaroroa #284 R1, Shinnecock Lodge #360 R1a, and Buckskin Lodge #412 L1a.

It is extremely unlikely, that I will ever complete even a NYS WAB collection as the most difficult NY items are $15,000 each.

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In previous posts, I’ve referred to earlier OA collecting guides which were used by many for years before the first edition Blue Book in 1996.

The first national collectors guide which was widely accepted throughout the hobby was what came to be known as Arapaho. More precisely it was “A History of the Order of the Arrow Through Insignia” and was referred to as Arapaho II It was originally published in 1979 and ran 460 pages. Albertus Hoogeveen, Richard H. Breithaupt, JR. , and David C. Leubitz were the primary authors. The first edition included black and white photos of many of the known issues at that time. It did not include chapters, event issues or neckerchiefs unless they had a patch sewn to them. Arapaho II was updated many times over the next 2 decades, primarily by Al Hoogeveen. I believe the last update was in 2000.

In addition to Lodge issues, in the first edition of Arapaho II, there were also sections on NOAC’s, Reproductions, OA Sashes, OA Literature, and a section on collecting Region, Area and Section Conclaves. Only the Lodge issues were ever updated

As an aside, Arapaho I was a guide for CSP collecting and preceded Arapaho II, while CSP’s have never been my area of collecting, I believe that only one edition of Arapaho I was ever published.

The earliest checklist exclusively for New York OA collectors, was published shortly after Arapaho II. The Order of the Arrow in New York State (OAinNY) checklist was produced by Al Rosenberger in the early 1980’s. It is undated, but contains issued and historical information from circa 1980-1982. There were also at least two errata or updates to the checklist comprising 1-2 pages of additions, deletions and corrections to the original list. The publication ran 40 pages and included many items not listed in either Arapaho or later Blue Book. The list did include neckerchiefs, activity patches, and chapter issues. As well as other more exotic pieces including stickers, medals, bolos and slides. Many of these were carried under the category M for Miscellaneous.

Although never published, in the early 1990’s, Bob Connor was working on an updated NY OA list. While never published, he did share his listing with other NY collectors as he searched for undocumented items, and for accuracy in the basic listings. Bob, like the early Blue Book (and Arapaho II) did not include chapter, activity and silk-screened neckerchiefs in his checklist. Much of his work later became the basis for the New York listing for the first Blue Book of which Bob was the New York editor.

The OAinNY list contains some activity or chapter items which I believe have never been listed in the Blue Book. From time to time, I will post on these issues in the hope of obtaining more information to share with the collecting community.

John Pannell has recently begun a “Year in Review” of 2006 Event patches on his blog. I’d like to do the same thing here for New York Lodges.  If your lodge has issued any event patches in 2006 (or in 2005) which are not listed on oaimages or previously posted on this site, please send me information and scans of these issues.  Of course if there ones I need, I’d be interested in trading or purchasing them.

One easy way to check on what I’m aware of from your lodge, is to click on your lodge name in the Categories section on the right sidebar.  This will bring up a page with the various posting I’ve done for your lodge.  You can than click on the title of any individual post to bring up the full post and image.

Thanks in advance for your input.  

One of my other collecting interests is Order of the Arrow Handbooks. For years, I’ve maintained an on-line checklist of the known issues.

Recently I came across a site which pictures all of the known OA Handbook cover variations.  This is a usefull tooll in determining what your looking for and showing the evolution of cover art since the first handbook was issued in 1948.

You can find all of the handbooks pictured here.

I’m a bit late in listing this edition of ClothTalk. Terry Grove is ‘the’ expert on Eagel Scout awards and his checklists on OA literature were published in an earlier incarnation of the ISCA Journal (SCQ?). The information I’ve received from him via those articles and from email correspondence over the years formed the basis of my OA Handbook Checklist.

You can lsiten to Terry and the guys at ClothTalk in their own words.

ClothTalk 015 - Birds of a feather

This episode, Tim and Ben talk to Terry Grove about the history of the Eagle Scout award, badges, and accompanying items awarded to Eagle Scouts?and his book on the subject. Terry also has a new book coming out this december about the early years of the Order of the Arrow. Terry is truly and expert in the History of The Eagle award and the History of the Order. We’re honored to have him as a guest.

For those paper collectors out there, Terry Grove is planning to publish a book on the early history of the ceremonies of the Order of the Arrow from its earliest years.  If you have any interest, drop Terry an email with the information below.

 

THE WIMACHTENDIENK

1915 – 1948

A book that traces the history of the Wimachtendienk through its Ceremonies, Constitutions, Lodge Manuals, Handbooks, Dues Cards and sashes from 1915 to 1948

All the known ceremonies – Ordeal, Brotherhood and Vigil – are in print within this book.  Many pictures and graphics are included as well as copies of original documents used by the Wimachtendienk over the years – plus checklists of everything available.

The book will be available late 2006. This is a pre-order form that can be used too reserve your copy of the book.  The book will be available hardbound and softbound.

Name____________________________________________

Address________________________________________

City State, Zip__________________________________

_____ Hardbound                               ____ Softbound

(Price to be announced)

Contact:

Terry Grove

2048 Shadyhill Terrace

Winter Park, Florida 32792

groveagle@cfl.rr.com

You can find an updated copy of my checklist of 2006 NOAC issues from New York State Lodge at  http://www.nyoatrader.com/noac.htm

Looking for information on the NE-3A and NE-3B section sets, information regading the Loon/Haudenausee Lodge CSP’s and any other unlisted issues from NYS.