 Patriotic
Treasures
Donaldson’s American Heroes
By Roy Nuhn
Among postcard collectors the
patriotics have long been an important topic. Besides the hundreds
of different issues published for sale on Independence Day, there
were many other sets and singles printed for use year round that
burst with red, white and blue fervor.
In this group will be found the very popular Colonial Heroes, Austen's
Famous Americans, various Tuck & Son's sets and the Rose company's
series of prominent historical personalities. These, too, are sought
by collectors with enthusiasm and determination.
Another favorite set, perhaps the most interesting of all, is Donaldson's
American Heroes. Its roots go back to Victorian times and we can
trace its artwork back to the famous Arbuckle Coffee trade cards
of the early 1890s.
The postcard set of American Heroes, as collectors have long called
it, consists of 14 beautifully crafted items.
 Each
card was created in vignette design, reminiscent of the patriographics
and other very early pioneer postcards of the 1895-1899 era, with
a portrait of the famous American, two scenes from his life and
a brief biography. Though manufactured in this country, they were
printed on the same postcard stock used by Bamforth Co., a British
firm more associated with comics than with American historicals.
Copyright was claimed by R. M. Donaldson in the year 1908,so it
can be assumed that 1908 or 1909 was the year of issue.
 An
important reason for collector's interest in this set is the fact
that many of the famous people honored are not found on other patriotic
postcards. For that matter, most of them were rarely, if ever, used
by publishers as illustrations for any kind of postcard. Great personages
from the pages of American history found in the Donaldson set, besides
Paul Revere and Abraham Lincoln, are William Penn, Winifield Scott,
John Smith, Andrew Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Sam Houston, Oliver Hazard
Perry, Israel Putnam, George Washington, David Glasgow Farragut
Philip Henry Sheridan, and John Paul Jones.
In 1894, Donaldson Brothers, one of the largest and most important
lithographic firms in America, printed the original set of 14 as
advertising trade cards for Clark's O.N.T. Spool Cotton. Approximately
14 years later, R. M. Donaldson, the surviving brother of the partnership,
used the exact designs for his postcard set. The second set apparently
was sold as a souvenir novelty in postcard shops as a boxed or packaged
item.
 The
original trade cards were 3x5-inches in size, as compared to the
postcards of 3 1/2 x 5 1/2-inch dimensions. However, the actual
illustrations were not enlarged in order to accommodate them to
the slightly larger format. Instead, we find the careful use of
white spacing as a border around the picture.
To the eye, the postcard design looks larger, but a closer examination
reveals otherwise.
Being trade cards from the 19th century, the Clark O.N.T. Spool
Cotton set has advertising on half of the back, while the other
half is given over to a biographical sketch of the hero. It is also
from the reverse side of these trade cards that we find the origins
of the set title, because nowhere on the postcards is there even
a hint of any sort of series designation.
The line at the bottom of the trade card says simply: "This
is one of a series of cards from our Gallery of American Heroes."
Early postcard collectors in the first two decades of the 20th century
had easy access to the older trade cards and from this line was
derived the commonly accepted terminology for the postcards.
Donaldson Brothers was a printing firm doing business in New York
City in the Five Points area.
From what can be gleaned from the old trade cards, it began operation
in the mid-1880s. They were lithographers of many of the best advertising
trade cards of the era.
 A
very important customers was the Arbuckle Coffee Company. Arbuckle's
need for trade cards in the 1880s and 1890s, as free inserts in
one-pound packages of their coffee, was so tremendous that they
employed several large printing firms simultaneously.
One of the Arbuckle sets that Donaldson did was the 50-card "History
of the United States and Territories" in 1892. The style of
the frames used to highlight and separate the different vignettes
on each card is the same later found on the 1894 Clark's trade card
set and the 1908 postcards.
And at least two of the illustrations, "Pennsylvania"
and "D.C.", were borrowed intact. In fact, so exactly
were these two pictorials copied, the artwork still contained the
name of the state or federal district, with the patriotic hero's
name added to fit the new format. However, the adaptation of the
Clark trade cards to postcards involved no changes of any kind.
The same artist who drew the Arbuckle insert cards also did the
trade cards for Clark's O.N.T. Spool Thread two years later. But
he was not needed for the postcard layouts since no original material
was added in.
Undoubtedly the choice by Donaldson of the personalities to use
on their 1908 postcard series was determined by what was available
in office files from previous years. This helps to explain the somewhat
unusual choice of people portrayed on the postcards. The heroes
of the 1890s were not necessarily the legends still idolized by
folks a generation later in 1908. By then, the passage of time had
dimmed people's memories about many Revolutionary and Civil War
heroes.
But thanks to Donaldson Brothers, there is available to today's
collectors an unusual and beautiful set of patriotic postcards and
a patriotic trade card set from the previous century. They both
helped to satisfy Americans' love affair for their country.
CAPTIONS
1. Civil War hero, General Phillip Sheridan (postcard).
2. One of Colonial America's leading figures, Benjamin Franklin
(postcard).
3. Mexican War hero, General Winfield Scott (postcard).
4. Early colonization personality, Capt. John Smith (trade card).
5. Naval legend Oliver Hazard Perry (trade card).
6. Admiral David Farragut, led the Union's navy to smashing victories
in the Civil War (postcard).
7. The Confederacy's most famous military leader, General Robert
E. Lee (postcard).
©
2008 Mountain States Collector
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