1906 Gassaway Rotograph Postcards Set

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Gassaway Rotograph Postcards
Year	1906
Size	3″ x 5″
Images	Color
Type	Postcards
Number in Set	80 (?)

1906 Gassaway Rotograph Postcards Overview

These postcards featured a variety of children in various activities and professions. They included a color image on the front and standard postcard backing without a divider line.

The postcards were designed by Katharine Gassaway and fronts bear her name inside of a small box. They were also copyrighted in 1906 and produced by The Rotograph Company of New York. Rotograph produced numerous postcard sets, including the popular PC782 baseball issue that featured professional players from the New York teams. Rotograph’s name appears on the front and back of these postcards. Finally, each postcard has a brief title below the picture describing the boy or girl and many in the set are of a humorous nature.

For whatever reason, the copyright holder is listed differently on the postcards. Some state that they are copyrighted by Gassaway while others are copyrighted by The Rotograph Company of New York.

In addition, Gassaway also produced other sets of postcards. Those postcards are different from these as her name is not always inside of a box and the titles on the fronts are printed in different font while many are unnumbered. Specifically, her name is featured on other postcards in conjunction with Raphael Tuck and Sons and Julius Bien and Company – both other well-known printers.

Of interest to sports collectors are two postcards featuring the sports of baseball and football. The baseball boy is wearing an orange uniform with the letter ‘B’ on it while the football player has a green jersey with the letter ‘Q’ on it. Other subjects found in the series depict either minor sports or non-sports.

The exact number in the set is unknown. However, they are numbered on the fronts (and include the initials ‘F.L.’) and seem to begin at #100. It is unclear if they were meant to be a continuation of another series but to date, I have not seen any with numbers below 100. Some appear to be numbered by subject. For example, the first cards in the series are all from places while the football/baseball postcards are near each other and in a sub-series of occupations.

Rotograph Continues Series Without Gassaway

Starting at or around postcard No. 180, the series was continued by Rotograph but without Gassaway credited as the artist. Cards in the 180s include the name of Gene Carr with text being printed in red ink.

In addition, postcards numbered after those were printed back in black ink again but many (if not all) without a reference to another artist. It is unclear if those were Gassaway renditions as well. I have left the post-Gassaway cards off the checklist below as there are no known issues representing any of the four major sports.

1906 Gassaway Rotograph Postcards Checklist

Below is a checklist of postcards I have seen to date. All numbers printed on the postcards have the prefix ‘F.L.’

100. New York
101. Boston
102. Chicago
103. TBD
104. Philadelphia
105. I’m Scared I’ll Get Sunburned
106. TBD
107. What are Little Boys Made of?
108. That Looks Good to Me
109. Chip of (sp?) the Old Block
110. Nothin’ Doin’
111. Not Yet, But Soon
112. Deserted
113. Beware of the Dog
114. Howdy
115. TBD
116. Noon
117. 1 Year
118. 2 Years
119. 3 Years
120. 4 Years
121. 5 Years
122. Good Night
123. TBD
124. TBD
125. TBD
126. TBD
127. Don’t Be Afraid I’m Here
128. TBD
129. The New Hat
130. A Little Flirt
131. TBD
132. 6 Years
133. TBD
134. The Cheat
135. Night
136. TBD
137. What Will Mama Say?
138. Don’t Go
139. The Book Keeper
140. TBD
141. The Toper
142. The College Girl
143. TBD
144. The Dress Maker
145. TBD
146. School Marm
147. The Typewriter
148. The Football Player
149. The Automobilist
150. The Messenger Boy
151. The Base-ball Player
152. The Would-Be Sport
153. TBD
154. TBD
155. The Dry Goods Clerk
156. TBD
157. The Policeman
158. The Trained Nurse
159. Two Little Bares
160. TBD
161. TBD
162. TBD
163. TBD
164. TBD
165. TBD
166. TBD
167. TBD
168. TBD
169. TBD
170. TBD
171. TBD
172. TBD
173. TBD
174. TBD
175. TBD
176. TBD
177. TBD
178. TBD
179. Poor Things, They’ll Get Drowned
180. TBD