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a recent estate sale find. These were collected by a Navy officer who sereved from the mid 1930's til the 1950's. I have some other related ephemera from his time onboard the USS ASTORIA that i shall list shortly along with some other things.
This listing is for...
A bound collection of 100 cartoon art covers to the LEXINGTON PRESS (also referred to as the Lexington Radio Press, Lexi Press, Lexington Morning Press, and Lexington A.M. Press) a newspaper / newsletter that was printed onboard from January to May of 1939.
The art was done by " WILKES " and included are two pieces of original artwork that were turned into covers. Of course these cartoons are very much of their era with the racism and sexism and juvenile humor one would expect but there are also commentary on life in the navy and the politics of the day, FDR, the "Chino-Japan War" and the European War, with references to the Fleet Problem and the ship itself the USS Lexington also known as the "Blue Ghost" both for its camouflage capabilities and also for the fact the Japanese kept thinking she'd be sunk only to see her rise from the grave. also nicknamed " Lady Lex ".
It seems like during this time they went to Panama, Guantanamo Bay Cuba, Haiti and other locales. This was a part of the Fleet Problem XX exercises. These wargames allowed the navy to learn and correct mistakes in their operations. The Lexington (CV-2) , as a primary aircraft carrier, was central to testing carrier doctrine, including projecting air power far from land. This Fleet Problem also had the first underway refueling of battleships and carriers, a significant and vital innovation to be sure.
I imagine this would be of interest to scholars of the "open cockpit" era or collectors of folk art much of it is reminiscent of the nose cone art that adorned the bomber and fighter planes of the war and also reminiscent of the art of the "Tijuana Bibles"It is a very unique collection in that it would seem to be a complete run of covers for this particular tour of duty.
Included as well are 15 other cartoon covers from 1938 and 1940. The artist is either Wilkes or a C. Adair.
I should think this collection is quite unique and no doubt some of these if not all are extant anywhere else as I could not find any information online about this newsletter or artist. It really belongs in a museum or an archive.
