Navy Sailor Patriotic Printed Paddle Fan, Early 20th Century

Presented is a patriotic printed paddle fan, with an image of a Navy sailor. The sailor is depicted on the back of a large boat, standing in front of a large, waving American flag. In the background, the sea is filled with Navy cruisers and a submarine. In the skies fly two biplanes.  The paddle fan has a blue and white border with a floral Art Nouveau design. The fan is titled “America First” in the bottom left of the border. The back of the fan features a printed advertisement, “Compliments of Levin’s Department Store,” proprietors of “Clothing, Dry Goods, Shoes and Furniture” based in Manchester Depot, Vermont. The fan is attached to its original wooden stick. From the beginning of the 19th Century, fans commemorated national events, such as centennials, statehoods, inaugurations, or the birthdays of public figures. Americans who had imported European fans from the late 1600s to the mid-1800s, joined the fan-making fray soon after the Civil War and made-in-America fans began to acqu