1941 Uncle Sam’s HOME DEFENSE (R158)
Gum Inc., and 1984 WTW Productions (Reprint), USA

Series Title: Uncle Sam’s HOME DEFENSE
Country of Origin: United States of America
Type of Card: Gum
ACC No.: R158
Manufactured by: Gum, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; WTW Productions, 1984 Reprint
Packaged with: Uncle Sam Chewing Gum
Number of Cards: 48
Numbering: 97 to 144
Card Dimensions: 1½ × 3⅛ inches
Album: None known
Circa: 1941 & 1984 reprint
Checklist (1941 Original): Download
Checklist (1984 Reprint): Download

Background

The “UNCLE SAM” & “Uncle Sam’s HOME DEFENSE” series is made up of two separate subsets. Both sets were issued by Gum, Inc. in 1941 prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entrance of the United States into World War II. The first subset titled “Uncle Sam”, consists of 96 cards, sequentially numbered from 1 to 96. They depict various scenes from the four branches of United States military; Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The cards themselves are arranged in four subsets: (1) Uncle Sam — Soldier, (2) Uncle Sam — Sailor, (3) Uncle Sam — Airman, and (4) Uncle Sam — Marine. The set itself is rather benign in content and subject compared to its contemporaries such as the Horrors of War and The Nightmare of Warfare. Both of these sets depicted the horrible events and more graphic details of what was happening in the world at that time. On the other hand, the Uncle Sam and Uncle Sam’s HOME DEFENSE series were more directed towards the United States preparedness for hostilities, and concentrated on the various training aspects of the U.S. Armed Forces and Civilian population. The color artwork in both sets is pleasing to eye, with good coloring. The Uncle Sam set has the American Card Catalog reference number R157.

The 48 card “Uncle Sam’s HOME DEFENSE” subset, followed the “Uncle Sam” set in 1941. The set was sequentially numbered from 97 to 144. This particular subset is devoted to the civilian activities in preparation for warfare. The series is also very pleasing to the eye, and is interesting from the historical perspective of what United States citizens were doing in preparation for hostilities in 1941. The Uncle Sam’s HOME DEFENSE subset has an American Card Catalog number of R158. This subset is more difficult to obtain since the production of the cards came under the jurisdiction of wartime restrictions on resources. However reprint cards of the series are available.

1984 Reprint Set

The “Uncle Sam’s HOME DEFENSE” reprint set was issued by WTW Productions in 1984. The card fronts and Backs are the same, except for the following copyright credit on bottom of the Back of the card … “Reprinted 1984 WTW Productions”.

Image-Guide

The following R158 “Uncle Sam’s HOME DEFENSE ” Image Guide contains images of the fronts and Backs of all 48 cards in both the original and the 1984 WTW Productions reprint set. Behind each thumbnail image is a 600-dpi image that you may access. Some of the card images were obtained from lower-grade scans and scaled up to full-scale images. All of the thumbnail and the 600-dpi images have been computer enhanced for presentation purposes.

Checklist

1¢ Wrapper

References

1. John A. Shupek: Card images from the Skytamer Archive Digital Image Database..

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