United Wishes for Happiness — 1942 Ration-Card Christmas Card
In the second Christmas of the war, Will Eesley turned the war’s most universal small object — the ration book — into a private joke shared with friends and family. The card is a hand-drawn parody of a 1942 OPA Unlimited Ration Book, “United Wishes for Happiness,” numbered like a real one (No. 457-230-0753), with four “stamps” wishing the recipient a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, Good Health, and Good Cheer — and along the bottom edge a strip of additional rationable virtues: Faith, Peace, Kindness, Friendship, Laughter, Success, Contentment.
It is, in a single object, the architect’s hand, the wartime moment, and the family’s habit of using craft to keep ordinary life intact. Signed Peggy and Will Eesley on the registrar’s certificate inside.
Catalogue
- Type
- Christmas Card
- Medium
- Hand-lettered ink on paper; mailed Christmas 1942
- Creator
- Wilbur Eesley
- Date created
- 1942
- Place created
- Columbus, Ohio
- ID number
- EESLEY-CC-1942-01
- Provenance
- Margaret "Maggie" Eesley collection; original held in the family's keeping.
- Inscription
- United Wishes for Happiness · Unlimited Ration Book · Wishing You: 1. A Merry Christmas (May your Christmas be filled with joy and happiness. May there be hearty hello's… warm handclasps and cheery heigh-ho's); 2. A Happy New Year (Here's to a happy holiday and the best of everything throughout the new year); 3. Good Health (This greeting brings warmest wishes for your welfare and happiness in the new year); 4. Good Cheer (May there be rollicking merriment and the gayest of cheer). No. 457-230-0753.
- Rights
- Family use; permission required for republication