Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
924-10
Date(s)
- 1935 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
ca. 1935. Postcard tacked on bulletin board reads "Greetings from the Elephants and Me, Ray Gamble" and shows Mr. Gamble surrounded by many elephants from his vast collection kept at his home. See series 924, image 5 for the photograph. In addition to being a collector, Mr. Gamble was also a traveler, magician and millionaire businessman. He died in 1972 at the age of 86. During his lifetime, his good luck charm elephants enhanced his "rags to riches" story, helped along by hard work on his part. He arrived in Tacoma in 1892 in a box car with 82 cents in his pocket. He worked at odd jobs, as well as grueling labor at St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co., the Shelton lumber camps and Olympia Oyster Beds. In 1913, he opened a fish market. While working at hauling sawdust for the local mills, he discovered that spread on his floor, the dust absorbed the fish odor. Later, the "wood flour," sawdust, was found to be the perfect stabilizer for explosives. Today it is used in a myriad of consumer products. Mr. Gamble helped to develop the "wood flour" industry. (filed with Argentum)
Gamble, Ray, 1886-1972; Collectors--Tacoma--1930-1940; Elephants; Christmas cards;