National Life’s Archives have been tapped again to help illustrate American history.
Beginning in 1934, National Life commissioned three artists to depict the Revolutionary War and Colonial American life in highly accurate detail.
Known as the “Historic Art Series” and consisting of more than 160 pieces, these works were used in the company’s national advertising campaign that ran for three decades.
The works are so good they are often used to illustrate books, documentary films and magazine articles.
So it is with the cover of this month’s issue of American History magazine. The cover features Roy F. Heinrich’s 1934 piece showing American soldiers behind a stone wall at the Battle of Hubbardton in Vermont on July 7, 1777.
This was the only battle on Vermont soil during the Revolutionary War. The National Life advertisement featuring this work ran in the Saturday Evening Post magazine on July 2, 1938.
In the March issue of this year’s Smithsonian Magazine, a portion of Heinrich’s work entitled “Protecting the American Home” was used to illustrate an article on strong females in American history.
National Life had first used that work in an advertisement in the September 1942 issue of Life Magazine.
