Smokey Bear Collection [Posters, Books, Pins and Miscellaneous Material]

[Washington, DC]: U.S. Department of Agriculture and Forest Service, 1970. Very Good. This eclectic Smokey Bear collection speaks to the sheer breadth of material produced with the famous bear's image. The collection includes 8 posters (most 47 x 33cm) printed on cardstock with memorable Smokey images, including one with Snoopy dressed up like Smokey and reminding readers to not play with matches; a set of 16 full-color Rudolph Wendelin prints (31.5 x 37cm); 11 bookmarks, thirteen pins, nine pieces of miscellaneous ephemera, three stamps, three bandanas, three sew-on patches, three vinyl records, six Little Golden books, two pieces of sheet music, three comic books, four litterbags, a t-shirt, a coloring book, a salt-and-pepper set, an (irony-free?) ash tray, and a 1960s Smokified plastic bubble bath bottle-produced by Palmolive and Colgate, Smokey's signature hat is the bottle cap. A complete and detailed list is available upon request.

Rudolph Wendelin, a United States Forest Service employee, was the main artist behind Smokey campaigns from 1946 until 1973. He helped humanize Smokey so his message would be better received by audiences. He's credited as "the mastermind behind Smokey Bear's signature ranger hat and blue jeans," according to the USDA Forest Service. The illustrations in this set show a very human-like Smokey with a kind face often helping his cubs. "The eyes are probably the most important feature of the bear to me," Wendelin told a Washington Post reporter in 1995, likely around the time this undated collection of prints was issued. A remarkable cache of material documenting one of the most successful PSA campaigns in US history.

References:

The National Museum of Forest Service History

"Smokey Bear Caught on like Wildfires: Icon's Popularity Kept Artist Busy During his Decades at the U.S. Forest Service." The Washington Post, Sandra Evans, November 30, 1995.