Presented here, is a deck of playing cards that I believe is previously unknown to collectors and is, perhaps, the busiest deck I have ever seen as each card is filled with a variety of facts and figures supposedly totaling 3,000 as per the claim on the original box (1st photo below).
This deck was copyrighted in 1906 by R.H. James, published by the National Educational Card Co., of Hot Springs, Arkansas and printed by the Greeley Printery of St Louis. It consists of 57 cards representing the 46 states, 4 territories, 6 U.S. possessions and Washington D.C. It is interesting to note that the card for Oklahoma lists it as the 46th state even though it was not admitted to the Union until November 16, 1907.
The non-state cards are listed as follows:
Arizona Territory, 47th in U.S. (4 of Eagles = 4 of Clubs)
New Mexico Territory, 48th in U.S. (7 of Flags = 7 of Hearts)
Indian Territory, 49th in U.S. (2 of Shields = 2 of Spades)
Alaska Territory, 50th in U.S., purchased from Russia in 1867 (4 of Shields = 4 of Spades)
Hawaii Islands, 51st in U.S., acquired by U.S. in 1898 (9 of Eagles = 9 of Clubs)
Philippine Islands, 52nd in U.S. (10 0f Stars = 10 of Diamonds)
District of Columbia, 53rd in U.S. (could be used as the joker - all 4 suits shown)
Isthmus Panama Zone, 54th in U.S., Panama Canal purchased from French company in 1902.
Guam Island, U.S. Possession, 55th in U.S., obtained from Spain in 1898.
Porto Rico Island, U.S. Possession, 56th in U.S.
Samoan Islands, U.S. Possession, 57th in U.S.
The Jacks each show 4 pictures of U.S. Commanders, the Queens each show 3 pictures of "Noble Women U.S." and the Kings each show 6 pictures of U.S. Presidents. The then current "Our President", Theodore Roosevelt is pictured by himself on the District of Columbia card (3rd photo below). The backs show 4 different pictures of an unknown location (2nd photo below) which might be Hot Springs, Arkansas although this is unconfirmed. In order to achieve the stated total of 3,000 pieces of information, the average card has to have over 50 individual facts and figures on it's own (representative card shown in 4th photo below).
The other unusual aspect about this deck is that it makes use of the same "National Emblem" suits (5th photo below) which first appeared in the Union Cards by Benjamin W. Hitchcock in 1862 and were published by The American Card Co. which is referenced as W5 in the Dawson/Hochman encyclopedia. As evidenced above, these new suit signs were converted to the well established suit signs as follows:
Stars = Diamonds
Flags = Hearts
Shields = Spades
Eagles = Clubs
This conversion was done in a very subtle manner by typing the value at the beginning of the first line on the 52 cards so that the Ace of Diamonds, for example, simply began as "1 D" which can really only be seen up close due to the small print, thus, rendering this deck practically unfit for actual play. A previous owner wrote "indices" in ink on the cards in an attempt to make them more readily identifiable.
This deck raises a couple of questions, namely, how did Mr. James get the idea of reusing these unusual suit signs from a deck that was over 40 years old at that time? Was there any connection between himself and Mr. Hitchcock, perhaps, a more recent one as a result of his National Cards from 1883 (Hochman P2) which also used these "National Emblem" suit signs? Given that Andrew Dougherty actually made the Union Cards for the American Card Co., was there, perhaps, some connection between his company and National Educational Card Co.?
Once again, the discovery of a "new" deck, while exciting by itself, also serves to increase the number of questions that collectors interested in playing card history would like to have answers to some day.
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