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Hand-illustrated cover
Object Details
- Description
- Corporal Jack Fogarty sent this cover from Yuma, Arizona to New York via airmail with three 2-cent Army and Navy for Defense stamps (900), postmarked March 25, 1944. Fogarty’s watercolor self-portrait is titled “By candlelight,” and shows him holding a candle and a letter. Fogarty recalled that candles were often necessary when the generators went on the blink at the Desert Training Center facilities in Arizona.
- Jack Fogarty served with the US Army’s 98th Evacuation Hospital during World War II. While working in the hospital’s administrative office, Corporal Jack Fogarty (later promoted to Sergeant) struck up a life-long friendship with Chief Warrant Officer John MacDonald and his wife, Mary. Jack and John both wrote regularly to Mary as the war took them to the Pacific Theater. John MacDonald also served as a censor for the unit, and the illustrated covers by Jack Fogarty bear MacDonald’s censor stamp and signature. In his correspondence with Mary, Jack filled the envelopes with scenes in watercolors, ink, and pencil. The illustrated covers show Jack’s life at the Desert Training Center in Yuma, Arizona, and his overseas service in New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan. In addition to illustrating his personal correspondence, Jack contributed artwork to the 98th Evacuation Hospital’s newsletter, The Bulletin. After the war, Fogarty’s artistic career took him into acting and his prolific correspondence with friends sometimes included illustrations.
- References:
- Jack Fogarty, e-mail message to Lynn Heidelbaugh, April 8, 2013.
- Fogarty, John. Little Boy-Short Trousers-Eaton Cap: This I Remember. AuthorHouse, 2005.
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Date
- March 25, 1944
- Object number
- 2012.2006.27
- Type
- Covers & Associated Letters
- Medium
- paper; ink; watercolor
- Dimensions
- Height x Width: 3 15/16 x 7 3/16 in. (10 x 18.2 cm)
- Place of Origin
- Arizona
- Place of Destination
- New York
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- Title
- Scott Catalogue USA 900
- Topic
- World War II (1939-1945)
- Covers & Letters
- Record ID
- npm_2012.2006.27
- Usage
- Usage conditions apply
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