Artifacts

Part of the California condor’s foothold in human culture takes the form of what I call, for lack of a better term, artifacts. These simple, everyday kinds of items tell us some of what humans think about the condor.

Here are a hodgepodge of 10 artifacts not previously shown on this blog.

This decal is from Lantern Press:

A mission, oil derrick, grizzly bear, snow-capped mountain, river, ocean, and California condor – all symbols of Ventura County, California on this Boy Scouts of America patch:

The zoo in Oakland, California makes critical contributions to the California condor recovery effort, including providing veterinary care to the birds:

A souvenir patch from Grand Canyon National Park:

A humorous and educational first day cover (this is really excellent):

Another first day cover is a reminder that the California condor is in elite company when it comes to Earth’s endangered animal life:

An older first day cover with a simple, but fine, illustration of a condor:

This educational postcard gives the California condor the prime spot in the upper, left corner:

A postcard from the Natural History Museum in San Diego shows a realistic-looking specimen:

With those spread wings, this exhibit at the San Bernardino County Museum (California) the must have made quite an impression on visitors:

Regarding the ages of the last 2 postcards: My sense is that the San Diego card is at least pre-1950s and the San Bernardino card is 1950s-1960s (based largely on the reference to “Freeway No. 10” in the museum’s address). I welcome expert input as to those dates.

There are many other examples of artifacts on this blog. Good places to start are with the ART/CRAFT, MUSEUMS, or POSTAL buttons grouped under the heading POST TOPICS, somewhere on this screen (depending on your device). The POSTAL button will lead to information concerning the 2 California condor postage stamps shown above.