Artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge — famed for his classic American painting, Dogs Playing Poker — a masterpiece appreciated most by fathers, created in 1882 a set of comic cards titled, I’m a Daddy, advertised in such places as the back of Harper’s Weekly, and selling for ten cents per set. Below are two advertising cards, promoting to dealers the I’m a Daddy set.

Click on any picture, to see an enlarged version.

Published by Sammis & Latham, the I’m a Daddy set (shown below) was incredibly popular, spawning a wave of imitations involving the same theme — that of a new father being told his wife has given birth to a large number of children.

Below, one of the scarcer imitations, date unknown. This example consists of three attached, folding cardboard cards, printed on both sides, with two of the six panes used to advertise the printer of this card set, and the other four panes providing examples of the printer’s work.

This set of undated postcards, also imitates the theme of the earlier trade card sets. Undated, I would guess this set as circa 1900, due to its appearing to be mass reproduced from hand-colored photographic originals. I’m uncertain that this is the complete set, as most sets conclude with four or five children being presented.

Coolidge, ever sharp on commercial potential, would appear to have been the first person to imitate his own concept, producing the following two variants — both using the same set characters — with Coolidge’s frequent collaborator, John McGreer.

Doug Wheeler