card deck: No. 500 Playing Cards

A special card deck made during the 1920s contains extra cards to make it possible to play the game Five Hundred with three players. The original owner served as a recreational director for the American Red Cross during World War I, and so played plenty of card games with women and men in the armed forces and volunteer organizations. According to the donor, her niece, she remained an avid bridge player all her life. She must have purchased this special card deck, printed with extra cards for the three-person version of the game Five Hundred, in the 1920s. Her niece remembers her aunt showing her the cards and saying how she had to "put them away in the war"--meaning World War II, because of the deck's card back design motif. The backs carry a swastika design. During a household move later in her life, her aunt labeled the deck with a note: "Swastika cards published in the 20's before Hitler currupted the Word!"