Wabaningo Lodge Emblem Handbook

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:

Original Wabaningo Lodge Emblem Handbook

#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”.

Copy of Original Wabaningo Lodge Emblem Handbook

#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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Author: nyoatrader
To share information about new or newly discovered Order of the Arrows patches, flaps, odd-shapes, neckerchiefs, event and chapter issues from New York State Order of the Arrow Lodges, warnings about fakes, spoof, and reproductions and any other information that may be of interest to New York State OA Collectors.

6 thoughts on “Wabaningo Lodge Emblem Handbook

  1. former Ranachqua Lodge Ordeal 1952, Brotherhood 1956. am in possession of WAB 1952 orig handbook & patches 4,15,49,& 360,N.Y.S. also in poss of 159, 82(flap),24,444,(82patch). Would be curious value??? if you would care to reply?

  2. Interesting article. Dwight Bischel stated in his Wab book that he hoped “to keep the book up to date by publishing a supplement every several years” and occasionally, a non-photographed (but mentioned) patch is accompanied by “Photograph to appear in supplement.” Dwight made one printing of 2,000 copies (as documented in an August 1994 interview of Dwight written by Bruce Shelley — who was the one who directed me to your original posting — and a September 1994 interview of Dwight written by Bill Topkis and Jeff Morley) and Dwight never did a second printing or second edition (because Lodge flaps were starting to come out, by National degree, and it would have necessitated re-doing the whole book). Years later, Joe Ternyk (of Bethlehem, PA) sold some pretty good brown-covered reproductions at and around Philadelphia Trade-o-rees (not sure if Joe had them made or just bought and sold them). These still surface occasionally. Finally, somebody had some made with maroon hardcovers and a gold imprint on the cover which looks like the design on the original (which appear similar to the 1948 hardbound O.A. handbooks) — some of which contain photocopied reproductions and some of which contain actual re-bound Wab books.

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