Hand-illustrated cover
Object Details
- Description
- This postal stationery airmail envelope (UC3) sent to New York from APO 201 (Yokohama, Japan) was passed by censor (#31527) and postmarked September 26, 1945. The watercolor by Corporal Jack Fogarty depicts a female figurine in Japanese dress, which he refers to in his enclosed letter to Mary MacDonald (Museum ID 2012.2006.28.2.1-3). Fogarty sent this correspondence a few weeks after his unit, the 98th Evacuation Hospital, treated Prime Minister Hideki Tojo for self-inflected gunshot wounds from his September 8th suicide attempt that was in reaction to Japan’s surrender to the United States.
- 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 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:
- Fogarty, John. Little Boy-Short Trousers-Eaton Cap: This I Remember. AuthorHouse, 2005.
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Date
- September 26, 1945
- Object number
- 2012.2006.28.1
- Type
- Covers & Associated Letters
- Medium
- paper; ink; watercolor
- Dimensions
- Height x Width: 3 3/4 x 6 5/16 in. (9.5 x 16 cm)
- Place of Origin
- JAPAN (constitutional monarchy)
- Place of Destination
- New York
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- Title
- Scott Catalogue USA UC3
- Topic
- World War II (1939-1945)
- Covers & Letters
- Record ID
- npm_2012.2006.28.1
