GUEST: I was teaching in the basement of an old elementary school in Storm Lake, Iowa. It was a pretty bad shape, the school was, and they were going to tear it down. People would go through and, and dump the stuff that they didn't want from all the cupboards, and the closets, and things like that. Then all the teachers would kind of walk around and, and grab what they wanted. So these were left over. Knowing Dick and Jane, because of our age, that's what we were taught, I just couldn't let 'em just go to the dump. It just makes me feel so good having been with the little kids, having Dick, Jane, and Sally.
APPRAISER: You mentioned that because of your age, you know Dick and Jane.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: I know Dick and Jane, as well.
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: The characters were invented by Zerna Sharp in 1930, but they actually were still used in classrooms into the 1970s. And she was trying to come up with something, and at the time, it's the way that p, kids were taught to read, which is called the Look-Say method.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So you look and you say it. It was criticized, this teaching method, and so they kind of phased it out and have come up with new research and better ways to teach kids how to read. They made these cards, we call them kind of, um, easel cards for teachers.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: They were actually just mechanical prints. So they're prints of watercolor illustrations, um, that mirror the books that kids would have had in the classroom. What I find fascinating about your sets is that we see a transition here in the late '50s, early '60s, and we have what is the iconic mid-century American memory of family, which was Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot, and Puff the Cat.
GUEST: Yes. (chuckles)
APPRAISER: And now we're shifting here into the early '60s, and in this set, we see that they've integrated the characters, because, 1954, Brown vs. the Board of Education, we have school integration and desegregation. And I think one of the criticisms that the initial Dick and Jane books had was that they didn't represent anyone other than the typical mid-century White family...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...with two kids and the dog and the cat. And so they made an effort to really try and be more inclusive once they get to the '60s. Because they were made in an economic way, they didn't want to use a separate board for every image, so we actually have images on both sides of these boards. What's interesting is that this has become such an iconic visual. That now I can say, "See Laura appraise."
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: Because now we have to talk about, what are they worth? And the graphics are just one of the more iconic moments of that era.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And they've become really popular. They've done a lot of spoofs of them. People now use the, the same images and graphics. They make all sorts of T-shirts, and magnets, and people have a sense of nostalgia because generations of Americans learned how to read with these books. The books are quite common. First editions can still sell for decent money, um, but the posters are quite a bit more rare, just because they didn't have as many of these sets. Only the teachers would have had them at the front of the classroom. So when you see these come up at auction, the posters individually often sell anywhere between $50 to $100.
GUEST: Individually?
APPRAISER: Individually.
GUEST: (laughing): Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER: We have two sets here, so we're showing the covers. These are just the covers from each set.
GUEST: (inhales)
APPRAISER: But you have 18 boards in this set and 16 boards in that set. And so, given how many you have, it, you're looking at anywhere between $1,500 to $2,500 worth of posters.
GUEST: (laughing): Oh, my gosh. It's just... Oh, that, that is so fabulous that people really keep enjoying these. I mean, it just gives me goosebumps, that's great. That's super. (sighs) I wish I had enough walls to put 'em on.
APPRAISER: They're wonderful, wonderful pieces. My favorite has to be Spot.
GUEST: (laughing): Yes!
APPRAISER: I'm a dog lover, so I'd be very much into Spot. And, and actually, S, things featuring Spot and Puff the Cat...
GUEST: Yeah, Puff.
APPRAISER: ...would be on that upper range of price per, per board.
GUEST: I'm a cat person.
APPRAISER: You're a cat, so you would... You go for Puff, I go for Spot.
GUEST: I would go for Puff, yes.
(both laugh)
