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Author
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Topic: Origin of souvenir Mercury mission patches
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garyd2831
Member Posts: 641
From: Syracuse, New York, USA
Registered: Oct 2009
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posted 01-27-2018 07:41 AM
   
While the first official crew patch didn't come to play until Gemini V, who created what is know to be the souvenir Mercury crew patches?Does anyone have a vintage set produced the closet to the end of the Mercury program? Who was the manufacturer and could someone post pictures of them? I would like to collect a set of the oldest know souvenir patches. |
KSCartist
Member Posts: 2948
From: Titusville, FL
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted 01-27-2018 05:20 PM
I purchased the Mercury set in 1970 from A-B Emblem. The Gemini set as well. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 45224
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-27-2018 05:52 PM
My understanding, which could be wrong, is that AB Emblem created the souvenir Mercury patches to fill the void of there being no official mission patch designs. You can find sets packaged with TWA Tours labeling, which would at least date them to the earliest incarnation of the Kennedy Space Center gift shops. There are also two Project Mercury patches of unknown age and pedigree shown on crewpatches.com. |
garyd2831
Member Posts: 641
From: Syracuse, New York, USA
Registered: Oct 2009
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posted 01-27-2018 06:13 PM
Thanks for the information. I will keep my eye open for a vintage set. |
Rambler Typhoon
Member Posts: 31
From:
Registered: Dec 2015
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posted 01-29-2018 05:44 PM
I've wondered about this a lot, too! I thought I had seen an implied reference to the artist being known in something I read in the past, but have never seen anything that was concrete about a company or specific designer. There appear to have been multiple companies making their own versions of these pretty early back, but I would have expected that AB Emblem would have pursued copyright claims on these if they were truly their designs. The public domain aspect of other mission patches certainly created more grey area for the official NASA designs. |
Liembo
Member Posts: 680
From: Bothell, WA
Registered: Jan 2013
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posted 01-29-2018 09:05 PM
Does the book. "Space Patches: From Mercury to the Space Shuttle" (Kaplan/Munoz) have any insight about this? |
Rambler Typhoon
Member Posts: 31
From:
Registered: Dec 2015
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posted 01-29-2018 10:20 PM
It's possible I read the reference to them being designed after the fact in the Kaplan and Munoz book, but I've read all of that and didn't see a reference to it. I finally got a copy of "Relics of the Space Race," too, and while I still have some chapters to finish, I didn't see anything in the patch chapter. |
Liembo
Member Posts: 680
From: Bothell, WA
Registered: Jan 2013
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posted 12-09-2020 11:37 AM
I don't know if this helps, but they were available as early as August 1971, according to this ad in Boys Life magazine. I would assume these are the same Mercury souvenir patches we know of today because there aren't other embroidered patch alternatives seen from that era.  Curiously, the Mercury patch artwork in this product, dated 1972, does not reflect the same Mercury artwork. It might indicate that the designs were not as widely known yet, so it would put the date of inception somewhere around this period of 1971-1972 for the Mercury patch artwork so common now?  
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vanerie
Member Posts: 66
From: Outer Banks, North Carolina
Registered: Sep 2016
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posted 12-10-2020 09:09 AM
Liem, your next project could be the production of a set of patches reflecting the original Mercury artwork. |
Liembo
Member Posts: 680
From: Bothell, WA
Registered: Jan 2013
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posted 12-10-2020 11:18 AM
Well I did do the Mercury capsule patches this year, so like those and other patches of that type, that is about as close to original artwork as there is for Mercury.  |
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