He shows up on the NRA covers and even signed on the NRA stamp itself. Beyond that, I have....
From The United States Postage Stamps of the 20th Century, Vol. 2, Commemoratives 1922-1933 by King and Johl, Page 231:
Quote:
While in Washington, attending a code meeting of the advertising specialties industry, William H. Seely, the head of this group, submitted a design for a poster to be used on deliver;' wagons and trucks, this poster depicted President Roosevelt urging everyone to help in the effort for national recovery. This design was called to the attention of C. R. Churchill, Deputy Chief of the Bureau of Public Relations, for the National Industrial Recovery Act, who saw in the poster the possibility of a striking design for a postage stamp. He presented the idea to his superior who then passed on the suggestion to General Hugh S. Johnson, Administrator of the N. I. R. A., and also to Postmaster General Farley.
Another source (I lost the page and haven't been able to find it again searching my history) I found added to this by indicating that a "B
artel" (no initials) identified the poster as appropriate to the project, passed it to his boss at the meeting who passed it to Seely. That would be a reason for J.L. Bartel to sign covers related to the NRA stamp. Now also in the Johl reference above there is a discussion of "B
ORTEL" which on page 234 reads
Quote:
The original design on which the N. R. A. stamp was patterned was designed by Rudolph L. Bortel, an artist who had prepared the design for use as a poster. It -was based upon a painting by Henry Hintermeister, a well known painter of American historical subjects. This painting represented Roosevelt as one of a group emerging from the clouds of depression. The sketch prepared by Mr. Bortel consisted of four figures, a farmer, President Roosevelt, a laborer, and a student in cap and gown. At the request of President Roosevelt the figure of the student was changed to that of a woman, a stenographer, and a mustache was added to the figure depicting Roosevelt, who then represented a business man.
Edit: Bartel or Bortel, this is a good reason he signed the NRA covers plus in cursive a sloppy "o" can read as an "a" as penmanship goes.
2nd edit: Just to show that one does not always take the best path, I googled the heck out of this in many, many ways. After hitting the dead ends (except for the page mentioning Bartel passed the poster on) I then though of checking my great uncle Johl's book. If I remembered to do that first, many, many , many keystrokes would have been saved.
Posted 11/09/2023 5:44 pm
