1945 Nat\'l Geographic School Bulletin Set 7 Issues WWII Victory Bonds For Sale

This item is a complete set of seven issues of the “Geographic School Bulletin,” published weekly by The National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., spanning the autumn of 1945. The bulletins present in this lot include Bulletin No. 1, dated November 5, 1945; Bulletin No. 2, dated November 12, 1945; Bulletin No. 3, dated November 19, 1945; Bulletin No. 4, dated November 26, 1945; Bulletin No. 5, dated December 3, 1945; Bulletin No. 6, dated December 10, 1945; and Bulletin No. 7, dated December 17, 1945. Each eight-page bulletin measures approximately 8.5 by 11 inches and was designed as a classroom aid, intended to bring current geographic knowledge and photojournalism directly to students in the immediate post-World War II era. The covers of each issue prominently feature a banner urging the purchase of “U. S. Victory Savings Bonds and Stamps,” a vestige of wartime propaganda that continued into the first autumn of peace, providing a poignant cultural artifact of the period’s civic priorities.The interior pages of these bulletins are rich with black-and-white halftone photographic illustrations that document a world in transition. One page from Bulletin No. 3, dated November 19, 1945, features a striking photograph by Russell Walker titled “Like Headstones in a Giant’s Graveyard Rise Darwin’s Anthills,” showing an Australian soldier surveying the peculiar, slab-like termite mounds of the Northern Territory, which the caption notes always point north and south. The same issue contains an article on South Africa, exploring its diamond and gold resources and plans to cultivate rice, with sub-headings examining industrial diamonds and the growth of Cape Town. Other bulletins in the set include a photograph of a young woman in a white dress and hat, likely representing a cultural or agricultural feature, and a picture of a small boy holding a lamb, indicative of the bulletin’s effort to present human-interest stories alongside hard geography. The printing technique is standard letterpress for the text, with the photographic images reproduced as halftones on uncoated paper stock, a format typical of educational materials of the era. The set includes an issue numbered “No. 3 (over),” suggesting a continuation of content onto the back cover. This collection of seven consecutive issues offers a concentrated snapshot of mid-1940s geographic education, capturing the National Geographic Society’s mission to diffuse knowledge through serialized print media at a pivotal moment in global history.