cards of great historical figures
 

I'll start with my Einsteins.

I kick myself for missing the Einstein you had for sale last year. I just could not pull the trigger at that time.

I really like your historical based cards.

Butch

I have duplicates for sale of the rookie cards, but here are my Queen Elizabeths.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...%20CDV%201.jpg

General Sherman. I wish we'd had a dozen of him to turn loose on the traitorous rebel scum.

More generals.

I have long been fascinated by Amelia Earhart. She has only has a handful of cards from prior to her disappearance, several of which I have never seen for sale. The Heinz F-277 card was released in 1936, and believed to have been pulled when Earhart disappeared. That would explain its great rarity today.

I am not an autograph person at all, but this AE check is one of the favorite hobby pieces I own. One thing noteworthy about the check is that it is made out to Paul Mantz. Earhart hired Mantz as an advisor for long-distance flying and before her second attempt to circumnavigate the globe, Mantz said she was dangerous and not ready for such a flight.

That Heinz is impressive. Here's a more mundane Amelia.

Thanks, Peter. I missed out on a 1933 Orami Earhart on eBay maybe six months ago. That is the only Orami Earhart card I have ever seen for sale, and I think it is my favorite image of Earhart on a card, even though it is black and white.

https://www.psacard.com/psasetregist...gallery/141443

I have posted my Earhart cards at the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum page on Facebook previously and have talked AE cards with the museum curator. The museum was not even aware that Earhart had any cards issued during her lifetime other than the Sky Birds card.

I collect several historical figures who I find particularly interesting or generally admirable. Franklin, Washington, and Leo Tolstoy (does he count as a historical figure? Greatly influential on the culture and literature, but not politics or states really) I probably have the most of. I also collect old cards of historical interest generally.

Here are 3 Lee's. The middle is from a studio in Charlottesville, the image of him a heavily romanticized one at the grave of his most famous Corps commander, Stonewall Jackson.

And 3 Neurdein's, which is one of my favorite history sets. I'm a republican, so a Cicero would be cooler than Ceasar but it is hard to find one of him. A Cicero CDV portraying something other than a coin or statue remains one of my top wants.

Up next, various painters.

Just purchased this from Australia.

Damn, now I gotta look for a Picasso card.

Well some people try to pick up girls
And get called assholes
This never happened to Pablo Picasso
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare and
So Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole

Well the girls would turn the color
Of the avocado when he would drive
Down their street in his El Dorado
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not like you
Alright

Well he was only 5'3"
But girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not in New York

--The Modern Lovers

In addition to the Felix Potin, Picasso has two cards in the late 1960s Victoria Vedetten Parade set.

He's also in 1966 Lyons Maid Famous People but it's sort of goofy.

cards of great historical figures
 

Jules Verne card I’ve had a while. Always liked the look.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8c84960e9e.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8f1a93b92f.jpg

I've got a Victoria album on the way so that may solve my Picasso dilemma.

I am told it's hit or miss on soaking those out. Also as you know there are four different albums.

A few more of my favorite Victorias.

What a great thread!
RayB

In some of the early years of Goodwin the SP's didn't have any parallels, which happens to include most of the Civil War Generals. Grant, Lee, Sheridan, Sherman all just get the base card, which is kind of nice because they are cheap and great looking artwork.

His performance in the field was inconsistent but P.G.T. Beauregard had a better name than the rest and was the first real hero General of the war. I found the plates for like $7.99 a pop somewhere, would love to get the other 2.

Well, my Victoria album disappeared into the infamous Jamaica, Queens mail center. I've had several packages go there to die over the years.

Yep. Been there done that too.

A couple of philosophers.

There's a sucker born every minute, but this guy never really said that.

Gandhi and Dr. King

Today's segment features 20th century composers.

I've actually got quite a few off for grading at the moment but I can add a some to the mix....

Astronauts.

For a change of pace, some Marilyn.

I like the Vita-Brits Pete. I was lucky enough to catch this one a few years ago. It was listed on ebay as an interesting post card of Marilyn from river of no return $8.00. I didn't think twice just said mine and bought it.

I'll counter Marilyn with Betty...

The Comedians
 

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...n%20signed.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...utographed.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...0autograph.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...%20Gilbert.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...ned%20card.JPG
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...ned%20card.JPG
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi..._%20Martin.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi..._%20Milton.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...0Autograph.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...er_%20Gene.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...script0001.jpg

Adding a few more (unsigned though) to Adam's group.

Amazing stuff everyone! Peter, what is that set that the Pryor, Allen and Belushi come from?

1992 Edito Service. I think it's Italian. Massive set with a million celebrities. Some more which I consider first cards until proven wrong:

and

Very cool, thanks for the info!

She got Greta Garbo's standoff sighs, she's got Bette Davis eyes.

President Nixon

Queens of England.

I was thrilled to find this recently, a 1990s German card.

Three giants of the ballet.

Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours.

This guy made an impact as the “Founder” of McDonald’s and the savior of the San Diego Padres

Attachment 533550

Extremely and literally hagiographic, but a cool bit of American history. This image was plastered onto a huge number of CDV's after Lincoln's death and is pretty cheap.

Opera singers.

There is too much great material to let this die already.

British tobacco cards are a great source for history cards, and they are usually very cheap. Here's a piece of the times, issued around the time of the Boer War. Lord Kitchener of Khartoum was a British hero of the times, his reputation as effective if not genteel later taking a perhaps undeserved hit in World War I. Christiaan de Wet is a footnote now, but a major figure then. The back notes he is a "foe worthy of British Steel", a farmer turned general turned acting President for a year, who fought the British in multiple wars and uprisings. Surprisingly, he managed to die peacefully on his farm.

I paid like .50 for these.

And some more Ogden's, while I'm sorting through them. I love the Dickens, I enjoy his books.

Pryor and Nicholson both have earlier cards.

1983 Topps Superman III
https://www.tcdb.com/Images/Cards/No...-5339414Fr.jpg

1989 Topps Batman
https://www.tcdb.com/Images/Cards/No...-5306209Fr.jpg

Good to know, wdmullins- thanks.

My non-sports collection is rather limited but here is my contribution

More comedians:

https://i.postimg.cc/90MmybtJ/Tim-Allen.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/c1byxQtd/Harry-Anderson.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/fWVtRQTp/dan-aykroyd.jpg


This next one is a year earlier than the Pro Line posted above, but neither is his first. He was in a set called "Uncle Milty" from the 1950s, when he had an early TV show.

https://i.postimg.cc/fbmH7sk2/Milton-Berle.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/QN18y4nR/Jim-Belushi.jpg

Again, this next one is not his first card, but it's the only one I have signed.
https://i.postimg.cc/CLGNP0g9/Johnny-Carson.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/zXqrPJhg/Chevy-Chase.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/yYhFsTWG/Chris-Farley.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/QMb7JXWm/frank-gorshin.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Ls54QmrT/Phil-Hartman.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/FHTmt2vH/George-Lindsey.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/MZVP4NJ2/Tim-Meadows.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/HWRCkXP0/Jim-Nabors.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/XqsBBsFN/Kevin-Nealon.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/KjN1TJ6p/Penn-Teller.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/T3MSXjYK/Harold-Ramis.jpg



https://i.postimg.cc/TwP7B3xt/jonathan-winters.jpg

And a few more, that wouldn't fit in the previous post

https://i.postimg.cc/HxKk3v0Z/John-Ritter.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/SRfn8k2p/Adam-Sandler.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/1t4SBMVY/Rob-Schneider.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/L4DhhCMd/Daniel-Stern.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/nzVgZ14Y/Alan-Thicke.jpg

1937 Famous Minors series. I got the whole set for $5, tons of history figures. British tobacco is largely dirt cheap. My leanings are toward antiquity and literature, so these two are nice in my book. I have no idea what John Milton's rookie card is.

Writers.

Love the Mark Twain.

Rookie cards make (a little) sense in the sports card hobby. In non-sports, it's silly.

Why? Why for example isn't Michael Jackson's first card as significant as Mike Trout's, relatively speaking?

Personally, I don’t think they make much sense in either world. First card, I get a little bit, but rookie with its million inconsistent rules to not include any cards that are difficult or the collector doesn’t want to have to buy don’t make a lick of sense.

I have no idea what John Milton’s first card is. Probably a Neurdein or something like that.

I have the 1937 Wills British Authors set, so it has some of my favorites like P.G. Wodehouse and G.K. Chesterton. Hilaire Belloc is a favorite of my dad's. A.A. Milne too. All rookie$. :D

I love the British Authors set, great and cheap issue. The Huxley and the H.G. Wells (he was a favorite of my childhood) are my favorites. Nice to see them get some love. British tobacco is a goldmine for historical and cultural cards.

Seems to early to let this die already. Here's my very first cabinet card, a German image of the Bard I got when I was 12 or 13. I don't know if the 1881 date relates to the cabinet, or the image. Probably the image. One of the most significant figures in literary history, and I think still an enjoyable read today (Macbeth > everything else).

Looking a little piratey with the earring.

And for those that don't like old playwrights, here's my favorite card of George Washington. Trenton might have been Washington's most impressive military engagement.

And that transitions into Cole Porter, whose Brush Up Your Shakespeare is incredibly brilliant IMO. I think Hamlet is as good as MacBeth, but those two above the rest.

My primary hobby is really reading more than cards, though I don't collect books, just reading copies. I love that song, anything that begins by shouting out Aeschylus and Euripides is a gem. Though I'm apparently not doing it right, unlike Mr. Porter citing Euripides and Shakespeare has yet to wow a lady....

I will never complain about Hamlet. The Laurence Olivier film version of Hamlet is one of my favorite movies of all time.

I have no idea if it's still available, but there's an amazing recording with Richard Burton as Hamlet. I guess if I had to choose I would rate Hamlet first, the Burnham Wood coming to Dunsinane and no man of woman born feel a little too gimmicky to me although the central soliloquy is better. I also find Hamlet's situation ultimately more interesting because the circumstances that test his character are thrust upon him whereas MacBeth's are of his own making.

Just added to my Amelia Earhart collection today with this very tough 1933 Orami card from Germany. The PSA population shows just three Earhart cards from the set. The card is about the size of a T206 and glossy. Even though the image is black and white, I think this is my favorite Earhart image on any of her cards. I am surprised this image of Earhart is not seen more often beyond this obscure German card.

I think my preference for MacBeth is more of personal grounds than literary analysis. It was the play that caught me first when I read Shakespeare originally, and some of its lines still resonate particularly well. Both are masterpieces and I would watch pretty much any version of either being performed.

Shakespeare is very fun to see as a play, but I think one of the merits of him that has helped him age so well is that, like the 3 surviving classical Greek dramatists, his work reads very well on the page even though that was not the original intent and presentation.

He has the Look N See, and a Goodwin and Allen & Ginter card that are easily found among a ton of more obscure items. I pick his stuff up whenever I come across something I don't have cheap. I would love for a full set of great writers cards like some of the old cigarette issues to be made again, but I imagine the market for that is about a dozen non-sport guys total.

And as not to sidetrack too far, here is another great writer on a similar German cabinet card. Poet, playwright, novelist, but also a scientist who published several books on botany and anatomy, and a politician. Faust is his masterpiece, but Elective Affinities and it's tragic characterization of reason versus passion I enjoyed most.

This card was about $7, the missing corner doesn't bother me with the clean image.

Perhaps not one of the more famous passages, but to me, someone who (sorry to get opinionated here) thinks psych drugs are in many cases overprescribed, this really resonates and shows remarkable insight.

Macbeth:
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?

Doctor:
Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.

He has so many lines that resonate in many contexts. Off memory so I've probably got some of these a bit off, but the point remains:

"There's daggers in men's smiles"

"Present fears are less than horrible imaginings"

"Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill"

"What's done cannot be undone"

"The false face must hide what the false heart doth know"

I find him always worth returning too for another read.

Too full of the milk of human kindness.

And for a completely different track, here's Butch Cassidy (far right) and "the Sundance Kid" (left) on another cabinet card of the Fort Worth Five.

This picture is the image that was found in a photography gallery in Forth Worth by the Pinkertons, and used to distribute wanted posters of each of the men, pushing them to flee to Bolivia.

And the modern day version.

This is one of my favorite cabinets, I really like the image and a black frame tends to look better. Wilhelm I was the first ruler of unified Germany and the first of the three emperors, for 16 years even though he was in his 70's when he became Kaiser. His Prime Minister has the fame these days, but Wilhelm was a major figure of 19th century history and has a ton of CDV's and Cabinets available cheaply because his importance then vs. his historical renown now are out of sync.

And here's James Garfield, the only sitting member of the house to be elected President as a dark horse candidate after a dramatic convention in 1880. I presume this card is from his campaign, based on the photograph and that it identifies him as General. Garfield was one of the many politicians given commissions in the Union army.

And another forgotten President, #23 Benjamin Harrison. Shame there's the paper loss in his beard, as the image is otherwise really crisp in hand.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...0Fredricks.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...DV%20Grant.jpg

Where the citizen is sovereign and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign — the people — should possess intelligence.

The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other.

Now in this centennial year of our national existence, I believe it a good time to begin the work of strengthening the foundation of the house commenced by our patriotic forefathers one hundred years ago, at Concord and Lexington. Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more perfect security of free thought, free speech, and free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion.

Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money appropriated to their support, no matter how raised, shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school. Resolve that the State or Nation, or both combined, shall furnish to every child growing up in the land, the means of acquiring a good common-school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistic tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate. With these safeguards, I believe the battles which created the Army of the Tennessee will not have been fought in vain.

--US Grant, speech at the Annual Reunion of the Army of the Tennessee in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sept. 29, 1875

A more pedestrian Grant card.

Grant CDV's are a bargain. Here's my favorite, not the best image but one portraying him at his best, magnanimous in victory, the gentleman Lee had feared he was not. He allowed Lee's men to keep their horses, recieve a general amnesty, and didn't even take his opponents sword. He intervened multiple times in the next five years to prevent the federal government from going after Lee.

And here's two more of my Grant's. These images are hand colored, after printing. They were not colored and then printed in quantity, but each one was hand done. I can imagine these were fairly pricey for the time if done by the photographic studio that sold them instead of an artistic end buyer. On close examination, the detail is really impressive.