Playing with Propaganda | Cotsen Children’s Library

Wartime doesn’t necessarily bring to a halt the manufacturing of amusements for children: it may encourage production of attractive but relatively inexpensive things to draw them into the effort. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Costales Gomez in Granada published “Instrumentos de Guerra” [Instruments of War], a set of 12 sheets measuring 23 x 32 cm. to cut, fold, assemble, and display. The much slicker cut-and-fold construction sheets designed by the French firm, Imagerie d’Epinal were its predecessors. “J. Gálvez” is credited on every sheet, but I wasn’t able to find out anything more about the illustrator. It’s unclear if the set was commissioned by the communists or the fascists.

Cotsen has acquired six of the 12 sheets in “Instrumentos de Guerra.” “Thumb Dog,” a vintage paper modeler, wrote a detailed account of his experience building them. He said he felt like the Alpha tester because he “couldn’t imagine the designer ever built one of his own works. Poorly measured parts, tabs where they shouldn’t be, no tabs where they should be, bad color matchup.” “Thumb Dog,” who is also an avid amateur military historian, also critiqued the accuracy of the models in the running commentary about the Spanish defense infrastructure during the conflict.

How many sets were printed? How were they distributed? How many were purchased? And perhaps the all-important question, how many were actually made? How many children made a connection between the pastime and the war they were living through? Have any memories of playing with this kind of propaganda survive?

Here is a list of all the models in the series “Instrumentos de Guerra” copied with thanks from Thumb Dog’s thread on The Paper Modelers website.

Tanque [Tank] (1)

Acorazado [i.e. Battleship] (2)Zeppelin (3)