Webb appears to have a tattoo on his left arm. We can’t quite make it out, but there’s a good chance he was in the Navy as military symbols were dominant motifs in ink then.
On the front of this real photo postcard, circa 1940, is written “H. P. Webb, Originator of “Missouri Mule.” We vaguely remember seeing these handmade souvenir mules in junk shops or antique malls in the past. After finding this postcard, if we see another one we’ll buy it.
The Missouri mule has faded from public memory. Mules, which are a sterile hybrid of horses and donkeys, were known for their strength, stamina, and intelligence – and for their willful obstinance, contrariness. Somehow this aligned with the popular image of Missourians and the mule was a symbol of rural Missouri. They are more a curiosity than a common farm animal today. Awareness of them has retreated. Locally produced souvenirware all but vanished in the 1950s with the availability of much cheaper Japanese giftware, some of which was hand-painted and quite attractive originally but became slurred as time went on. Locally made crafts are sold today as art, not souvenirs.
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Lens & Pen books are available on this website, on amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble. You can see sample pages of our most recent book, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco, on our website: hypercommon.com.
Lover’s Leap Legends won the bronze medal in the popular culture division of the 2020 Independent Publishers’ Book Awards, an international competition. This year there were entries from forty-four states, seven Canadian provinces and fifteen other countries.
James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River was a finalist in Regional Non-fiction in the 2019 Indie Book Awards. Lens & Pen Press’s earlier river book, Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir, was awarded a silver medal by the Independent Publishers’ Book Awards in 2013.)