{"product_id":"vintage-blair-township-police-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan","title":"Vintage 1960s-1970s Blair Township Police Tin Litho Toy Badge Native Chief Shield, Township Est. 1839 NOS on Card Made in Japan 🚔","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gavgLeBPfyM\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 4 x 2.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e New Old Stock, still on its card.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔵 A Dime-Store Toy Badge That Knew Its Township's Birthday\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMost toy police badges on a five-and-dime rack said SPECIAL POLICE and nothing else. This one names a real place and gets its founding year right. \u003cstrong\u003eBLAIR TOWNSHIP POLICE\u003c\/strong\u003e, with 18 on one side of the shield and 39 on the other: 1839, the year Blair Township was set off from Frankstown Township in what is now Blair County, Pennsylvania. A loose one turns up now and then; still on its card like this, it's a rare one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd the police force it names was young. Blair Township had no police department until 1966, when the township supervisors hired Maurice Chamberlain as a part-time chief along with a single part-time patrolman. So here is a tin-litho toy from a Japanese factory carrying a small Pennsylvania township's founding date and the name of a department that started with two part-time officers. It is still pinned to its original yellow \u003cstrong\u003eSPECIAL POLICE BADGE\u003c\/strong\u003e card, marked JAPAN, and still in its clear sleeve. New Old Stock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🛡️ The Badge and the Card\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe badge is a round \u003cstrong\u003etin lithograph pinback\u003c\/strong\u003e. A red rim circles a yellow ground, and on that ground sits a blue shield edged in navy. \u003cstrong\u003eBLAIR TOWNSHIP\u003c\/strong\u003e arches across the top in black capitals with \u003cstrong\u003ePOLICE\u003c\/strong\u003e beneath it. The date is split around the center, \u003cstrong\u003e18\u003c\/strong\u003e at the left and \u003cstrong\u003e39\u003c\/strong\u003e at the right, and the center of the shield is a left-facing profile of a Native American chief in a red feathered headdress with a cream headband.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe card carries no town name at all; the badge does all the local work. Across the top runs a red banner lettered SPECIAL POLICE BADGE in white. Below it rides a cartoon motorcycle patrolman in a white peaked cap, goggles, dark uniform and tie, gloved hands on the handlebars beside a big round headlamp, with a pale city skyline behind him. JAPAN is printed at the lower right corner of the card.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧭 Which Blair Township?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmerica has more than one Blair Township, and the date on the shield settles which one this is. \u003cstrong\u003eBlair Township, Michigan\u003c\/strong\u003e, in Grand Traverse County, was not established until 1867, took its name from Michigan's Civil War governor Austin Blair, and is patrolled today by the county sheriff's office rather than a police department of its own. \u003cstrong\u003eBlair Township, Pennsylvania\u003c\/strong\u003e, was set up in 1839 and has had its own police department since 1966. The 1839 on this badge is the Pennsylvania township's year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏞️ The Town: Blair Township, Blair County, Pennsylvania\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe land was first settled in 1773, as part of Frankstown Township in what was then Huntingdon County. In 1839 the county court divided Frankstown and gave its western part the name Blair. The new township counted about 1,176 people. It had no towns of any size, only the small villages of Catfish, Vicksburg and Reservoir, sitting among the boroughs of Hollidaysburg, Gaysport and Newry and part of Duncansville.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSeven years later, on February 26, 1846, Blair County itself was formed out of Huntingdon and Bedford counties and given the same name. Today the township covers about 13.7 square miles in the southern part of the county, borders Hollidaysburg and Duncansville to the north, surrounds the borough of Newry, and takes in the communities of Fort Fetter, Penn Farms, Reservoir, Brooks Mill and Vicksburg. The 2020 census counted 4,785 residents. Hollidaysburg, which borders the township, is the Blair County seat. The county's largest city, Altoona, was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849, and the railroad finished its Horseshoe Curve there in 1854 to ease the climb to the summit of the Alleghenies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e👤 The People\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Blair\u003c\/strong\u003e (1766 to 1832), the man Blair County is named for, was born at Blair's Gap. His state historical marker remembers him as a pioneer farmer, merchant and public servant, an advocate of good roads and a promoter of the Pennsylvania Canal and the Allegheny Portage Railroad, the inclined-plane line that carried canal traffic over the Allegheny ridge. When the township was named in 1839, the order honored \"John Blair, Esq., late a distinguished citizen of Huntingdon County.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmong the early settlers, Patrick Cassidy founded Newry, and Henry Campinou and Michael Fetter ran a gristmill near what is now Route 22. Then there are the lawmen. \u003cstrong\u003eMaurice Chamberlain\u003c\/strong\u003e was the department's first chief, part-time, from 1966. In 1976 the township signed on with the Pennsylvania State Police for dispatching, a service known as Blair Base. In 1977 the supervisors made Chief \u003cstrong\u003eRichard Clapper\u003c\/strong\u003e full-time and added a full-time patrolman, \u003cstrong\u003eDenny White\u003c\/strong\u003e. The department that began with two part-time officers now runs five full-time officers and no part-timers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📜 The Lore: Signal Fires, a Trading Path and Toy Badge Prizes\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLong before it was a township, this was Native ground. The township's own history names the Delawares, Muncies, Nanticokes, Shawnees and Tutelos among the peoples who lived, hunted and traveled through it, and local tradition tells of Indian signal fires burning on Chimney Rocks, flashing messages to warriors watching in the valley below. Just next door, the state's Frankstown historical marker records a Delaware and Shawnee village called Assunepachla on the Kittanning Path, where the trader Frank Stevens kept a fur post by 1734. Frankstown still carries his name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eToy badges have a true story of their own. Sheriffs used tin toy badges like this as prizes in youth programs, handing them out to kids. That is where a dime-store toy crossed over into real community life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 The Maker's Trade: Japanese Tin Lithography\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNo maker's name appears anywhere on the badge or card, only JAPAN. Tin lithography means printing a full-color image onto flat sheet tinplate and then stamping and forming the metal, so the picture becomes part of the surface. It is how one small button could carry a shield, a date, a portrait and two lines of lettering, and why the blue and red on this one are still bright. After the war, American occupation authorities ordered Japanese export goods marked \"Occupied Japan\" from February 1947; the occupation ended on April 25, 1952, and Japanese toy makers went on selling bright, inexpensive tin novelties to American variety stores.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌎 The Impact\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA toy like this carried a real local name into a child's hands: a township's own name and founding year, on a badge naming a police force that had only existed since 1966. Town-named tin litho badges like this one seldom surface today, and they are a different object from the generic SPECIAL POLICE badges with no town at all: the town is what makes them local history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e✅ Condition\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNew Old Stock. The badge is still pinned to its original card, and badge and card are still together in their clear sleeve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-sheridan-wyoming-chief-police-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan\"\u003eVintage 1960s-1970s Sheridan Wyoming Chief Special Police 🦅 Tin Litho Toy Badge Original NOS Card Japan\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1970s-san-francisco-police-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan\"\u003eVintage 1960s-1970s San Francisco Special Police Toy Badge Tin Litho Button Pin New Old Stock Japan Original Card Collectible 🚔\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-royal-oak-michigan-auxiliary-police-tin-litho-toy-badge\"\u003eVintage 1960s-1970s Royal Oak Auxiliary Police Tin Litho Toy Badge 🚔 NOS on Card Michigan Seal Made in Japan\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769723007141,"sku":"VAG-7034820755621","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3292700214_ksdl.jpg?v=1785353735","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-blair-township-police-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}