“Neon signs and unseen histories of the American landscape”

FAIN: HB-272928-21

Dydia DeLyser
California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, CA 92831-3599)

Writing leading to a book on neon signs and the American landscape from the late 19^th century to the present.

A book revealing how neon signs have transformed the American landscape, "Hidden in Bright Light: The Untold Story of Neon Signs in America" will be the first book to detail the history of neon signs in America. Mustering extensive archival research and lengthy experience in the sign industry, the book dispels previous myths about neon’s history and uses the geographical tools of landscape interpretation to show what went previously unseen: how important it is to be able to “read” the landscape in all its detail; how landscapes must not only be read, they must also be made; how advertising is also art; and how a technology like neon can create community around the past and the present. Accessibly written, the book brings scholarly research and geographical insights to a broad audience just as museums and sign restorations lend neon’s hidden histories wide appeal.

Associated Products

Neon: A Light History (Book)
Title: Neon: A Light History
Author: Paul Greenstein
Author: Dydia DeLyser
Abstract: Is it possible that (once again) everything we know is wrong? Well, in regards to the history of neon, this may well be the case. Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein have penned a brief, but concise history of the neon sign beginning at the beginning, and covering scandals, murder, fascists, and forgotten inventors. A full-color, lavishly illustrated electrical bodice ripper, aficionados of neon will find this an indispensable “bible” to the history of their favorite collision of art and commerce. Since the late nineteenth century neon signs have inspired devotion and derision, drawing people to them and transforming the American landscape in the process. In Neon: A Light History Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein unite the approaches of scholar and signmaker in the first book to detail neon’s rich history and geography from the inside. Lavishly illustrated and invitingly designed, this short book’s compellingly written expert analysis dispels long-held myths and misunderstandings about the inventors and technologies, the art and commerce, and the cities and communities that have made neon signs such iconic parts of the American landscape. Revealing neon signs as active agents in sweeping cultural, economic, and political changes nationwide, DeLyser and Greenstein introduce readers to inventors and “tube benders,” business owners and customers, politicians and passersby, sign detractors and sign afficionados, architects and restoration specialists—a compelling cast of characters, many of whom, they show, continue to keep neon vibrant today. Taking readers inside the signs themselves, the authors show how each sign, whether historic or contemporary, is made by skilled hands—today just as they were over one hundred years ago. Drawing from over a decade of in-depth archival and ethnographic research as well as more than four decades of experience in the sign industry, DeLyser and Greenstein show how neon signs have transformed the American landscape.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://historyofneon.org
Primary URL Description: Website for the book, with historical details about neon included from the book.
Publisher: Giant Orange Press
Type: Other
ISBN: 978-1-7364776
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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