“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
In our next online auction we take a dip into some of our greatest stories as a nation. Stories told through stamps, coins, letters, and pictures…lots of pictures. In this auction we travel from the late 1800’s to today. We fly through Japan in WWII, and the USSR years later. We hear “State of the Union” Presidential speeches, and we can feel on our fingertips the buttons, and coins that marked our most popular presidential races. Here in this auction, we take a look at thousands of pieces of history, knowing that history has it’s eyes on us now. Below are just a few of the stories we’ll encounter along the way.
To start our featured items I want to first travel to Detriot Michigan in 1909, where the KRIT Motor Car Company, first started to build touring cars and roadsters. Of course they weren’t the first to do this, but they were the first to include a Swastika as their car emblem. Its name most likely originated from Kenneth Crittenden, the financial backer and designer of the cars. They were 4-Cylindar models, and oddly enough many of them were sent to Europe and Australia. Of course the Germans had yet to sully the use of the Swastika, so at the time nobody had thought anything of it. The KRIT Motor Car Company wouldn’t live on to see what Nazi Germany would go on to do with their beloved emblem, because the company failed in 1915 due to the outbreak of WWI. Interestingly enough, in the exact same lot we have for sale is a button from the Nuremburg Rally of 1939. The Nuremburg Rally was the annual rally for the Nazi Party in Germany and went on from 1923-1938. In 1939, the 11th Party Congress scheduled the rally for September 2nd through the 11th, and even named it the “Rally of Peace” because it was intended to reiterate the German desire for peace with other countries and with the German people themselves. The rally however was cancelled quickly, because on September 1st, one day before the rally was to begin, Germany began its offensive push against Poland. The rest is as they say history.
Fast forward to after the attack on Pearl Harbor, where the government knew that the Japanese army could potentially have access to a lot of United States cash. Fearing the allowance of that kind of problem, the emergency Hawaii overprint note was created. Should the islands have been taken over, the United States Government would immediately reject any Hawaii overprint notes, knowing that they were in enemy hands.
While the overprint notes were being shipped to the islands of Hawaii, here on United States soil was the formation of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, better known as the W.A.V.E.S. The waves were established in 1942, as a part of the United States Naval Reserve, and served at 900 different United States stations with their peak at over 86,000 women. Admiral Nimitz commended the W.A.V.E.S. at the conclusion of the war for their groundbreaking assistance on the national stage.
Once the war was near it’s end there was a need for strengthening a unification among allies, so President Harry S. Truman, and other world leaders were able to establish the United Nations, which held its first convention on the west coast of San Francisco. Edward Stettinius Jr., who was Secretary of State under Franklin Roosevelt and Truman both, would be named the first United States Ambassador to the United Nations. There in San Francisco from April 25th to June 26th, 1945 Edward Stettinius Jr. chaired the United States delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization.
These are only a few of our favorite stories, so be sure to check out the full catalog.
The KRIT Motor Car Co. is a pin from a part of Lot #51
The Hawaii Overprint Silver Certificates are Lot #195
The United Nations Conference Memorabilia is a part of Lot #143
The original W.A.V.E.S. Hat & Portraits are Lot #253
