Buffalo soldiers
“Buffalo soldiers” playing cards commemorating African American military men who helped change the face of America.
It was the American Plains Indians, fighting against the black cavalry troops in the nineteenth century, who first used the term “buffalo soldiers”. The nickname soon became synonymous with all African-American regiments formed from 1866 to the present day. This pack, produced in 2000 by U.S. Games Systems Inc. and edited by Marc Newman, celebrates the contribution of African American military men who helped change the face of America. Each card shows a drawing or illustration, with description, of an individual, regiment, battle, cavalry or infantry division, frontier post, etc. Beneath this is a brief summary of the content of the other cards of the same denomination. At the bottom of each card is further general information about the picture. While there are no jokers three information cards are present. See the box►
Above: “Buffalo soldiers” playing cards produced in 2000 by U.S. Games Systems Inc. Manufactured by Carta Mundi.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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