Price: $49.99

Mail Call: Hand Painted Envelopes from Father to Son During WW I When Walter Myers enlisted in the Army during World War I, his father, Ross, painted an original patriotic design on each envelope into which the family placed their letters.  At one time Walter had to ask his father to stop decorating the envelopes because his mail was being stolen for their art.  Walter carried the envelopes in a leather pouch through the trenches and difficult living conditions as he moved from place to place.  At one time they were lost but, fortunately for Ross’ posterity, were found again.   The envelopes were frequently displayed in one of the windows of the largest department store in their hometown of Steubenville, Ohio.  Also displayed were his leather case, gas mask, maps, and a captured German officer’s helmet.   After returning home from France in 1919, Walter joined his father’s business and became noted for his design of church and club interiors.   John Ross Myers was a noted Scenic and Renaissance Ornament artist of the 1900s in the tri-State area of Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.  He studied art at the Cooper Institute of Art, later called the Cooper Union.  While studying in New York City, he earned money for his schooling by painting on the Brooklyn Bridge.  In the early 1920s he traveled to the Holy Lands and the Mediterranean Area to research the ornamental painting for which he became well known.   The excerpted letters included in this book are those written from Walter TO his family and carefully saved by his mother, later passed down to his daughter, Nancy Myers Hopkins.  Many of them were written on YMCA stationery.   The combined envelopes and letters present an historical record of the war and home fronts between Feb 5, 1918 and May 3, 1919.  Walter was assigned to the Army Air Service Corps, 5th Balloon Company and fought in the Meuse-Argonne Defensive Sector and was involved in the engagement at St Mihiel, France. To order online, click here: Digital Legend Library