SAMUEL E. LOWE and Violet Idelle Higgins in 1916

This is a repost from January 12, 2012 because of the following comment I received. I thought paper doll collectors might find this interesting.

I just discovered this site, so a belated answer to those who wonder if this is the same Samuel Lowe from the Golden Books and Lowe paper doll books. Yes, my father wrote many of the books for the authors who had written for Whitman Publishing before it became part of Golden Books and was also creator of the classic doll cut-out books.
  —Richard Lowe

................................................

This vintage children’s book was bought a couple years ago at an estate sale. What remains memorable is that there was a beautiful bookcase in the living room with many children’s books inside; such a rare thing to find at an estate sale. If there are children’s books they’re usually reprints or books from the last 20 years and pretty low end.

Click on any image to see it larger.

This book, The Camp Fire Girls Duty Call (1916), is from The Camp Fire Girls series written between 1912 and the 1930s. Though the author says Helen Hart a little net digging shows that this was just a pseudonym for Samuel E. Lowe (1890-1952). According to Wikipedia he wrote a total of 5 books in the series as Hart. You can find this information here. I'm not finding biographical information about Lowe, but he did write several other books including The Court of King Arthur.

If you look around online you'll find Samuel E. Lowe & Co. listed for a lot of comic books. I also found a reference for Lowe working for Western Printing and Lithographing Company. Whitman, publisher of this book, was a subsidiary of Western.

There is a college scholarship, Samuel E. Lowe Scholarship, established by Western. Same Lowe? I'm guessing so. I just can't find any definitive biography of this man. Perhaps someone will find this post and fill in some details.

As to information about the series, it’s spotty at best. I did find the following information at the University of Minnesota Libraries “Girls Series Books: A Checklist of Titles Published 1840-1991” list:

Note: Publication information on this series is still a puzzle. Many of the 
volumes have no copyright or publication date listed. Girls Series Companion 
1990 notes that chapters from volumes 2, 4, and 5 also appear in three of the 
MARY LEE books. (Mary Lee is also a character in the Camp Fire Girls 
series.) The NUC attributes volumes 5 and 7 to Samuel Edward Lowe under 
the pseudonym Helen Hart, and it is possible that others in the series are his 
work. The NUC attributes another book published by Whitman, Marigold's 
Pony (not part of the series), to Lowe under the pseudonym Howard B. 
Famous, but copies of Marigold's Pony have been seen with Rietz listed as 
author on the cover and Hart as author on the title page.

If you read enough of the notes at this site you’ll see why trying to pin down this series is so confusing. That said, let’s enjoy it for what it is. A book of a time period long gone.

The illustrator was Violet Idelle (Moore) Higgins (1886-1967) who attended the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1900s. She illustrated children’s books, magazines, and even a weekly comic, Drowsy Dick. Click here to read a biography of Violet and her husband, Edward Roberts Higgins, also an artist.

You can click here to see more information about her methods and media.

Here and here are a few more of Higgins illustrations.

And let’s hear it for series books for girls. I remember when the San Francisco library was refusing to carry Nancy Drew books because they felt they weren’t literary enough. Balderdash! They were missing out on what girls series books have done for girls over the years. They were never meant to be literary. They were meant to give girls a different perspective as to what was possible. Yes, the stories were formula writing, but there was a comfort in seeing a girl triumph each time she set out to do something. Girls were able to see themselves in the world beyond the narrow path set for them by others. Not all series were created the same and I can’t say if the Camp Fire series challenged girls to think outside the box (an expression that should be boxed and put on the shelf), but if it helped girls feel good about themselves then it succeeded.

C. F. SAUER COMPANY, From Bland to Grand!

This vintage magazine ad is from The Delineator, July 1918. Uncle Sam asking you to participate in the war effort. Imagine that? Making grocery shopping political and implying the citizens of a country should band together as one in time of war. Spice up your dinner during wartime. Would we have the stomach for it today? Do you think Uncle Sam could get any of us to do anything these days?


(SOURCE: The Delineator, July 1918)

The image below is from the Sunday News, Charleston S. C. on March 17, 1918. Click here to see the paper, it's well worth the time. Note that the blue highlighting is simply Google Books way of saying, "Look here! Here's what you want!"

The C. F. Sauer Company is still in business.

The C.F. Sauer Company was founded on October 13, 1887.

In 1929, Sauer purchased Duke’s Products Company and thus entered the mayonnaise industry. The recipe for Duke’s Mayonnaise has not been altered since it went into production in 1917.

In the 1950s and 1960s, C.F. Sauer Co. introduced Gold Medal spices and purchased Dean Foods (a margarine company). In recent decades, the company also purchased BAMA brand mayonnaise and Spice Hunter brand exotic spices. It was the first spice company to use plastic containers. Their condiment facility is located in Mauldin, South Carolina (southeast of Greenville). They acquired Pleasants Hardware in 1989. In 2011, C.F. Sauer Co. sold its Dean Foods division to a subsidiary of Bunge Limited. (SOURCE: Wikikpedia)

Who was Uncle Sam?  Was he based on a real person or pure fiction?

The Evolution of Uncle Sam

Sam Wilson was a meat packer in New York, who supplied rations for the soldiers. They had to stamp their contractors name and where the rations were coming from, onto the food they were sending. On the package, it was labeled “E.A – US.” When someone asked what that stood for, a coworker joked and said “Elbert Anderson (the contractor) and Uncle Sam,” referring to Sam Wilson, though it actually stood for United States. As early as 1835 Brother Jonathan made a reference to Uncle Sam implying that they symbolized different things: Brother Jonathan was the country itself while Uncle Sam was the government and its power.

By the 1850s the name Brother Jonathan and Uncle Sam were being used nearly interchangeably to the point that images of what had been called "Brother Jonathan" were now being called Uncle Sam. Similarly, appearance of both personifications varied wildly. For example, one depiction of Uncle Sam in 1860 depicted him looking like Benjamin Franklin, (an appearance echoed in Harper's Weekly's June 3, 1865 "Checkmate" political cartoon) while the depiction of Brother Jonathan on page 32 of the January 11, 1862 edition Harper's Weekly looks more like the modern version of Uncle Sam (except for the lack of a goatee).

However, even with the effective abandonment of Brother Jonathan (ie Johnny Reb) near the end of the Civil War, Uncle Sam didn't get a standard appearance until the well-known "recruitment" image of Uncle Sam was created by James Montgomery Flagg. It was this image more than any other that set the appearance of Uncle Sam as the elderly man with white hair and a goatee wearing a white top hat with white stars on a blue band, and red and white striped trousers.

The image of Uncle Sam was shown publicly for the first time, according to some, in a picture by Flagg on the cover of the magazine Leslie's Weekly, on July 6, 1916, with the caption "What Are You Doing for Preparedness?" More than four million copies of this image were printed between 1917 and 1918.

Flagg's image also was used extensively during World War II during which America was codenamed 'Samland' by the German intelligence agency Abwehr. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

So, the message here is "Don't be bland, be GRAND!" Otherwise there's going to be an old dude with a gray goatee at your front door pointing at you for not listening to his recipe suggestions. And no, the old guy with the goatee is not your Uncle Ralph simply having a '60s flashback with a craving for Fritos.

Celebrating LIBERTY

This image by William Balfour-Ker is from the July 1918 Delineator magazine.



We were at war on July 4, 1918. Now, 94 years later we're still at war with people on the other side of the globe. It never ends and probably never will.

Liberty seems so logical to most of us, but it's not a universal language. It's too often fighting religion, greed, and political dominance. We're really always on the tipping point. So try to not go shopping for sales to celebrate the founding of this country or wave a flag mindlessly without really thinking about what it means. Don't be a good consumer. Be a good American which means respect people, stop listening to those who yell the loudest, and don't follow every fool who claims liberty is simple if you just think like they do.

As to the illustrator, an avowed Socialist, which means he dreamt of liberty for all, not just the few:

William Balfour Ker was born in Dunville, Ontario, Canada on July 25, 1877 of Scottish heritage. His mother, Lily Florence Bell, was a first cousin of Alexander Graham Bell. The Ker family immigrated to the U.S. in 1880. His early education and training are unknown. As a young man, Ker was an avowed Socialist, his art often reflecting his political beliefs. In the 1890's, he became a naturalized citizen and a student of the great illustrator Howard Pyle.

During this time he met a fellow student of Pyle's, Mary Ellen Sigsbee, daughter of Charles D. Sigsbee, captain of the USS Maine [Spanish-American War]. Politically, Mary Ellen was as far to the left as he was to the right. She and Ker fell in love, and despite her father's vigorous objections, the couple eloped in 1898. After their marriage they lived in Greenwich Village, where they worked out of a small art studio. A son, David, was born in 1906. The following year, they packed up their infant son and went to Paris to paint.

Ker's style was influenced by other Social Realists of the time, particularly Diego Rivera, who was in Paris at the same time. By the time they returned to New York a couple of years later, the marriage was failing, ending in divorce in 1910. Ker married model Josephine Phillips, with whom he had one daughter and three sons. The daughter, Yosene Ker, grew up to marry Lathrop Weld and bore him three children. The youngest was Susan Ker Weld, known to moviegoers as Tuesday Weld. The teen idol of the 1950s and '60s is the granddaughter of William Balfour Ker and Josephine Phillips. (SOURCE: Fine Old Art)  

Samuel E. Lowe and VIOLET IDELLE HIGGINS in 1916

This vintage children’s book was bought a couple years ago at an estate sale. What remains memorable is that there was a beautiful bookcase in the living room with many children’s books inside; such a rare thing to find at an estate sale. If there are children’s books they’re usually reprints or books from the last 20 years and pretty low end.

Click on any image to see it larger.

This book, The Camp Fire Girls Duty Call (1916), is from The Camp Fire Girls series written between 1912 and the 1930s. Though the author says Helen Hart a little net digging shows that this was just a pseudonym for Samuel E. Lowe (1890-1952). According to Wikipedia he wrote a total of 5 books in the series as Hart. You can find this information here. I'm not finding biographical information about Lowe, but he did write several other books including The Court of King Arthur.

If you look around online you'll find Samuel E. Lowe & Co. listed for a lot of comic books. I also found a reference for Lowe working for Western Printing and Lithographing Company. Whitman, publisher of this book, was a subsidiary of Western.

There is a college scholarship, Samuel E. Lowe Scholarship, established by Western. Same Lowe? I'm guessing so. I just can't find any definitive biography of this man. Perhaps someone will find this post and fill in some details.

As to information about the series, it’s spotty at best. I did find the following information at the University of Minnesota Libraries “Girls Series Books: A Checklist of Titles Published 1840-1991” list:

Note: Publication information on this series is still a puzzle. Many of the 
volumes have no copyright or publication date listed. Girls Series Companion 
1990 notes that chapters from volumes 2, 4, and 5 also appear in three of the 
MARY LEE books. (Mary Lee is also a character in the Camp Fire Girls 
series.) The NUC attributes volumes 5 and 7 to Samuel Edward Lowe under 
the pseudonym Helen Hart, and it is possible that others in the series are his 
work. The NUC attributes another book published by Whitman, Marigold's 
Pony (not part of the series), to Lowe under the pseudonym Howard B. 
Famous, but copies of Marigold's Pony have been seen with Rietz listed as 
author on the cover and Hart as author on the title page.

If you read enough of the notes at this site you’ll see why trying to pin down this series is so confusing. That said, let’s enjoy it for what it is. A book of a time period long gone.

The illustrator was Violet Idelle (Moore) Higgins (1886-1967) who attended the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1900s. She illustrated children’s books, magazines, and even a weekly comic, Drowsy Dick. Click here to read a biography of Violet and her husband, Edward Roberts Higgins, also an artist.

You can click here to see more information about her methods and media.

Here and here are a few more of Higgins illustrations.

And let’s hear it for series books for girls. I remember when the San Francisco library was refusing to carry Nancy Drew books because they felt they weren’t literary enough. Balderdash! They were missing out on what girls series books have done for girls over the years. They were never meant to be literary. They were meant to give girls a different perspective as to what was possible. Yes, the stories were formula writing, but there was a comfort in seeing a girl triumph each time she set out to do something. Girls were able to see themselves in the world beyond the narrow path set for them by others. Not all series were created the same and I can’t say if the Camp Fire series challenged girls to think outside the box (an expression that should be boxed and put on the shelf), but if it helped girls feel good about themselves then it succeeded.

The MAKING OF A SOLDIER in 1918: Part 4

The final scans from The Making of A Soldier. Click on the links to the previous posts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Click on any image to see it larger.

The MAKING OF A SOLDIER in 1918: Part 3

Taking the chance that the post card folder would not fall apart, I scanned the remaining pages of The Making of A Soldier.

You can see part 1 here and part 2 here.

Click on any image to see it larger.

My next post will contain the final pages of this 1918 vintage ephemera.

The MAKING OF A SOLDIER in 1918: Part 2

More images from this World War I post card booklet dated 1918 published by the Seattle Engraving Company.

In order are the last page, the inside back cover, and the back cover.

Click on any image to see it larger.

To see the first post click here.

The MAKING OF A SOLDIER in 1918

This was a Christmas gift which belonged to my best friend's grandfather who served in World War I. I have been unable to find one online so I have no information to enlighten us and as you can see part of the front cover is missing, thus I'm not positive of the title.

Is part of it offensive? Yes. It's a product of its time.

I probably won't be able to scan all of it because it is so fragile. The cover has already completely come off and it wasn't like that when I got it. So I may or may not be able to post more of this vintage post card ephemera in days to come.

For now, this is the front cover, interior front cover, and first page.

Click on any image to see it larger.

CHRISTMAS: When you're FAR FROM HOME and NOT FORGOTTEN

They might be far away, but we should never forget them no matter if they're currently serving or served in the past.

Click on either image to see them larger.

Manufacturer was Illustrated Post Cards and Novelty Company. If you click here you'll be taken to a book called Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Errors of the..., Volume 85 which lays out an interesting case brought by the company.