This frame-bordered
Presidential card is 1 1/2" wide x 2 1/4" high. The back of the card gives the President's full name,
place of birth, dates of birth and death, term of office, party,
Vice President, state of adoption, and profession.
According to Cracker Jack archival records, Presidential cards were
used twice as prizes. One series of 32 cards was supplied by the United
States Sales Corporation in 1947. The series also included cards for each of the 48 states and the District of Columbia. Later,
in 1955, the source of another series of Presidential cards was the
Dowst Manufacturing Company.
There are cards from one set, found in the Cracker Jack prize archives, that have the frame borders, like the card above. The set includes a card for Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President, showing his term of office as "1945-1953" (no longer in office) and a card for Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th President, with the term of office shown as "1953-" (still in office). So this set could not be the 1947 set.
There is a second version of the Presidential cards with an additional blank-spaced
border around the outside of the frame and with the full name of the President in the border below the portrait. This set likewise includes a card for Eisenhower, so it
cannot be the 1947 set from the United States Sales Corporation either.
Documentation on the 1947 Cracker Jack set reveals that it contained only 32 cards,
but the information does not indicate whether those cards were the variety with just the frame or instead ones with the addtional blank space around the frame with the President's name at the bottom. A secondary source, however, suggests that they were the type with just the frame and no name at the bottom, like the ones presented here.
A Truman Presidential card showing an uncompleted term could help shed some light on the cards. If such a card exists, it would be from the 1947 series, since Truman was still in office then.
Any additional information on these cards would be welcomed and appreciated. Contact the
Cracker Jack Box via e-mail.
(Presidential Trivia: The card for Harry S. Truman does not give
a middle name for the "S." That is because the "S" didn't stand for
anything.)
