It is simply outrageous how assumptions can sink a project almost before it floats. Let me explain.

I have a special interest in the history of the old American west, but not because I’m a history buff. It is because many of the famous personalities were old west gunfighters and many have been the subject of movies. When the set of cards featured in this essay were discovered, I gathered them, thinking that someday I would write about the actors who played the roles of these men (except for Martha Cannary) and it would make a good story.

But first, it was important to learn about the artist who created the nearly life-size portraits featured on the cards. Sure, I found the artist’s name in several places but my searches, one-after-another failed. Finally, I emailed Postcard History’s editor, Ray Hahn and asked for help.

Here is how Ray helped. I had searched for an artist named Lea Franklin McCarty. I was curious about the name Lea, for the usual spelling is with an “h” – Leah. I was sure I had read a review of a book, published in the late 1950s which bespoke of the author as she. My assumption was that Lea McCarty was a very accomplished but mostly unknown, female artist who was using a “brush-name” or perhaps a maiden name.

When I told Ray that my contribution would be without bio-data on the artist, he put on his genealogist’s hat and found that Lea Franklin McCarty was not an unknown female, but a much accomplished male artist who was born to Del McCarty and his wife, Dorothy Lea Davenport on April 9, 1905.

Lea McCarty was a resident of Santa Rosa, California and when he died from a heart attack at age 54 in 1960, he had already completed more than 100 oil paintings of famous old west characters. McCarty’s primary sources were old photographs and tin-types. McCarty’s last portrait was of Lily Langtry.

The year before his death, McCarty participated in the preparation of a book entitled, Gunfighters of the Old West. The contents included twenty-two illustrated stories of famous gunfighters such as Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok, Joaquin Murrietta, Bill Longley, Ben Thompson, King Fisher, Jim Courtright, John Wesley Hardin, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Luke Short, Clay Allison, Old Man Clanton, John Ringo, Billy the Kid, Curly Bill Brocius, Dave Mather, Calamity Jane, Pat Garrett, and the lads who mixed it up at the OK Corral. The book became a best-seller.

Twelve of the personalities above were chosen as subjects of a postcard set published by Mike Roberts of Berkeley, California. Early in Robert’s career he earned a sterling reputation for his high quality Natural Color printing.

Under the guise of the lady first, this checklist is provided for your convenience. The entries preceded by an asterisk are accompanied by an illustration that follows:

* Martha Jane Cannary (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane. Other portraits in the set are:

Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882),

* John Henry “Doc” Holliday (August 14, 1851 – November 8, 1887), “Doc” was a dentist,

* James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876),

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929),

Bartholemew William Barclay “Bat” Masterson (November 26, 1853 – October 25, 1921).