3 minute read
From the Collection: Before Snugglepot and Cuddlepie
By Tessa Occhino
The Shrine of Remembrance Collection holds more than 200 postcards, but none as endearing as these recent acquisitions featuring the iconic gumnut babies. Brought to life by renowned Australian author May Gibbs, these postcards were originally created for families to send to troops during the First World War and were also included in the Red Cross parcels sent to Australian troops. Each card showcases the gumnut and gum blossom characters alongside various Australian animals, demonstrating their contributions to the war effort in their own unique ways.
The first postcard, titled The Gumnut Corps, captures the spirit of courage as five gumnut babies stand prepared for battle, armed with leaf shields and pointy sticks. This particular card belongs to a series that explores the experiences of soldiers going off to war from their perspective, rather than the perspective from the home front.
The second postcard, entitled Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers, showcases a kookaburra and 14 gumnut babies perched on a branch, diligently knitting socks and sewing shirts destined for the troops. Two spiders generously provide their silk for the sewing and knitting tasks.
If you look closely, you can see the babies each undertaking a different task: cutting fabric, threading needles, sewing, knitting, and even one dozing off on the job, all in their bright gum blossom skirts and hats. The watchful kookaburra, wearing glasses and carrying a Red Cross bag, oversees their work. The 14 babies were reported to represent 14 girls who met to sew for their soldier friends away fighting, and the kookaburra their directress.
This postcard pays homage to a popular wartime song of the same name, originally composed by British composer Herman Darewski and songwriter R.P. Weston as a patriotic tongue twister. Sung by popular American singer of the time, Billy Murray, the song humorously recounts Susie’s tireless efforts in sewing shirts for soldiers, despite the fact that many soldiers would “sooner sleep in thistles” than wear the shirts.
This was the most widely distributed of Gibbs’ postcards, with newspapers at the time reporting that ‘every parcel sent [by the Red Cross] contains a card of the Sister Susie Gumnuts’. Gibbs herself expressed immense joy in creating these postcards, with one newspaper saying:
No work has ever before given her [Gibbs] such genuine pleasure, for she worked with the knowledge that they were going out to the gallant lads and were something essentially typical of their native land.
In all, Gibbs created over 30 designs for patriotic postcards during the First World War, all focusing on different aspects of the home front experience through her charming characters. These postcards served as the early inspiration for Gibbs’ beloved Gumnut and Gum Blossom Babies booklets, published in 1916, and ultimately in the creation of her first book, Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie: Their Wonderful Adventures in 1918.
Tessa Occhino is the Exhibitions and Collections Officer at the Shrine of Remembrance.
