Archive of original artwork for patriotic workplace production posters, designed for the Caterpillar Military Engine Company, 1944

[Decatur IL: ca 1944-45]. A compact and substantial archive, comprised of 30 signed original drawings, one printed poster, and a large printed sample-book of wartime production advertisements for the Caterpillar Military Engine Company (a wartime subsidiary of the Caterpillar Tractor Company) of Decatur, Illinois. Drawings are on art board, in pen-and-ink (but one, a pencil sketch) measuring about 13" x 16" (or the reverse); a few slightly larger or smaller; one of the smaller drawings, a Christmas-card design, is fully colored. Printed poster (reproducing one of the artworks) measures 14"x11". The sample book, in original tape-backed card wrappers, measures 21"x16" and reproduces 95 advertising pieces created for Caterpillar's war-time production drive, produced between April, 1944 and May, 1945. Condition is generally Near Fine, with mild toning to margins of a few drawings, occasional pre-publication touch-ups, etc.

The Caterpillar Military Engine Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Tractor Company, was established in 1941 for the highly specific purpose of converting gasoline-powered aviation engines to diesel-powered tank engines. By 1944 the plant was converted to production of Caterpillar's flagship product, the D-7 Crawler Tractor (popularly known as the Bulldozer), an essential tool for establishing Army beachheads and landing strips throughout the Pacific theatre. In 1945 the CMECO Decatur plant received the coveted Army/Navy "E" Award for wartime production - an achievement clearly made possible through the efforts of Caterpillar's art and advertising department, headed by a talented commercial artist / cartoonist named Ralph Dorr Collins. Collins' team produced nearly 100 recruiting posters and newspaper advertisements in addition to issuing a steady stream of in-house morale-boosters in the form of posters, cards, and a weekly calendar of employee activities. Examples of original compositions in each of these genres are included here, and nearly a hundred more are reproduced in the Art Department's in-house sample book for 1944-45.

In a nod to the importance of women in the wartime industrial workplace, many of Collins' in-house works feature the characters "Joe and Mable Cmeco," who appear, very much on equal footing, in a repeated poster-sized comic-style strip called "Just A-Ramblin,'" clearly intended to maintain company morale through long hours and grueling wartime production quotas. Joe and Mable, a young couple both employed at the Decatur plant, endure their tribulations with enthusiasm and good humor, even giving up weekends to make sure the plant meets its weekly quotas: "We Stayed on the Job Saturday - because we did our shopping and banking Friday night - Did You?," reads one poster; another shows Joe preparing for a fishing trip but thinking better of it after picturing U.S. soldiers on the battlefield - "Hmmmm - th' fish would never bite with me thinkin' those thoughts - better beat it on to the plant!!!" Also included here are ten large cartoon panels in which Joe and Mable tout "Employee Activities This Week," promoting morale-boosting activities such as company picnics, softball games, meetings of the Aviation and Camera Clubs, bowling tournaments, etc. All of this is accomplished with unexpected wit and a very advanced level of draughtsmanship, far beyond the quality of most comparable in-house commercial art we've encountered. Seeing the degree of detail and joie-de-vivre with which Collins infused his drawings, it is unsurprising that the Decatur plant captured the national Army/Navy production award for 1945.

We've found only a scant record of Collins' work after the war. According to his 2003 obituary, Collins remained an employee in the art department of Caterpillar until his retirement in 1969. Newspaper accounts prior to the war identify him as the grandson of Cephus Collins, the last surviving Civil War veteran in Decatur County and himself a talented artist whose work was exhibited publicly on at least two occasions. We can find no evidence that the younger Collins ever strayed from his lane as a highly talented company ad-man, which might seem a shame were there not the clear evidence assembled here that he truly loved his work.