Hubert Latham Tobacco Card

A new friend of mine, Mary Adams Urashima, author of the book ‘Historic Wintersburg in Huntington Beach‘, is a reader of this blog 0r at the very least the blog in which I utilized some of her wonderful writing to help provide an answer to an aviation postcard mystery.

You can read about that mystery HERE, with a kind reminder to search out the comments below for more cool information from her on the subject matter.

Mary, in her LOC (letter of comment) mentioned that I might be interested in knowing about the famous French aviator Hubert Latham who flew his plane over the now historic Wintersburg shooting at ducks! What a nut! I love it! In the LOC, you’ll find a link to her story on that.

Heck… here’s the link HERE.

Anyhow, let’s just call Mary’s note to me pure kismet.

For no reason other than I thought it was cool, I was already going to do a blog this evening featuring Latham on a tobacco card! Really. I only have a few of the cards myself, so it is all quite fortuitous.

That is him in the 1910 series of The Aviators tobacco cards (known in the card collecting market as series T 38).

Below… ahhhh, this is a so-called error card. This version of the card is under the auspices of the white-backed Tokio and Mezzin Cigarettes (by the United Cigar Stores Co.).

The card mistakenly calls Latham by the first name of Albert. And, what makes this an ERROR card (says the guy who collects sports cards as well as tobacco cards) is the fact that it was corrected in later printings!

Other cards of the T38 series could be found in the gold-backed United Cigar Stores version.

I’ll do a proper version of Latham’s biography at a later date. Promise. In the meantime, go check out Mary’s blog!

Kismet, I tells ya! Trust me… I know all about kismet… after all, my dogma was run over by god’s karma. I know… it’s a long way to go for a joke.

About mreman47

Andrew was born in London, UK, raised in Toronto, Canada, and cavorted in Ohtawara, Japan for three years. He is married, has a son and a cat. He has over 35,000 comic books and a plethora of pioneer aviation-related tobacco and sports cards and likes to build LEGO dioramas. Along with writing for a monthly industrial magazine, he also writes comic books and hates writing in the 3rd person. He also hates having to write this crap that no one will ever read. Along with the daily Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife blog, when he feels the hate, will also write another blog entitled: You Know What I Hate? He also works on his Pioneers Of Aviation - a cool blog on early fliers. He also wants to do more writing - for money, though. Help him out so he can stop talking in the 3rd person.

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One Response to Hubert Latham Tobacco Card

Mary Adams Urashima says:

September 24, 2014 at 1:06 am

Look at that rakish Hubert Latham. He pulled some type of theatrical stunt everywhere he flew. He is reported in the San Francisco Call on January 8, 1911, as flying “through the Golden Gate — the first aviator to be an argonaut,” http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1911-01-08/ed-1/seq-29.pdf He is the gift that keeps on giving.

Thank you for the mention in your blog once again, Andrew! I have posted links to your blog on my author facebook page and am sharing it with others. (And now, I’ll be on the look out for tobacco cards.)