Hi Tweets:
I actually made a purchase at an antique store this weekend. I'd read
that in the late 1800's Arm and Hammer Baking Soda came with bird
pictures and that homesteaders would paper their cabins with them.

So I asked the guy in the antique store about it, and he went in the
back and came out with 13 cards, trading cards, that had a picture of a
bird on one side and a write-up about it (with the theme "Useful Birds
of
North America," and the motto "For the good of all, do not destroy the
birds") on the other. The birds were painted by Louis Agassiz Fuertes,
a famous naturalist and bird artist.

They were so charming that I bought them ($1 a piece) and then came home
and tried to find out something about them. I found photographs of them
for sale a few web sites. It seems they are from the late 1930's and
that A&H did many series of them. I have the 9th series and am missing
the bluebird and robin. The Downy Woodpecker and the Black and White
Warbler are especially charming.

Anybody else have any experience with these adorable cards?

Kirsti Streifert
Coulee Dam