The Horrors of War

July 3, 2012 12:21 PM

These cards, produced in 1938 by Philadelphia-based Gum, Inc. (later Bowman), produced a political furor unlike any other. The idea for these cards was introduced by George Moll, a Sunday-school teacher and Gum, Inc.'s advertising counsel. Warren Bowman, owner of Gum, Inc., claimed that he wanted to "teach peace by exposing the horrors of war." [link is to an archive of trading cards featuring cartoonish racism/violence/godknowswhat]

via Ed Asner.

posted by Think_Long (9 comments total)

I think this might the very first "via Ed Asner" ever posted here (or perhaps anywhere).
posted by inturnaround at 12:29 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

Anyone got a 'firebombing', rookie year? I've got 'trebuchet' in its final season.


And: "via Ed Asner" (!) How cool is that?!
posted by mazola at 12:32 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, Ed and me go waaaaay back.
posted by Think_Long at 12:37 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fascinating. On the back of the cards is the slogan "to know the horrors of war is to want peace." Googling that brought me to this interview with a man who, according to "the PSA Registry Hall of Fame, [has] finest set of The Horrors of War cards ever assembled."
posted by audi alteram partem at 12:38 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

“The human louse somewhat resembles a tiny lobster, and he lives chiefly in your trousers. Short of burning all your clothes there is no known way of getting rid of him. Down the seams of your trousers he lays his glittering white eggs, like tiny grains of rice, which hatch out and breed families of thier own at horrible speed. I think pacifists might find it helpful to illustrate thier pamphlets with enlarged photographs of lice. Glory of war indeed! In war all solderies are lousy, at the least when it is warm enough. The men that fought at Verdun, at Waterloo, at Flodden, at Senlac, at Thermopylae - every one of them had lice crawling over his testicles.”
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
posted by The Whelk at 12:38 PM on July 3, 2012 [9 favorites]

Nice post, my Dad had a set of these when he was like 10 years old and vividly remembered them 70 years later. This is as good a place as any to link to the Topps gruesome 1962 Civil War Trading Card set.
posted by marxchivist at 1:02 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is as good a place as any to link to the Topps gruesome 1962 Civil War Trading Card set.

They didn't fuck around with trading cards back in the day, did they?
posted by Think_Long at 1:07 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

And let's not forget the best series of cards, also from 1962:
#36, Destroying A Dog
posted by Rash at 1:57 PM on July 3, 2012 [4 favorites]

Never heard of these!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 5:58 PM on July 3, 2012