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          Starting in the early 1960's, Alton Tobey was contacted by Golden Book publishers in New York to undertake a project that would be the single most extensive art publishing effort of his career. Golden Books planned on creating a 12-volume set of subscription volumes containing more than a thousand pages of illustrations and text on the history of our country, from the discovery of the North American continent in the 15th century to the beginining of the space age in the 1960's.

          The text in the volumes was written to be understood, appreciated and enjoyed by all Americans, whether they be of school age or mature; and designed to appeal to citizens at every educational level. To heighten the interest of the books, it was necessary for the publisher to find an artist who could narrate in pictures the most important events in our country's history with not only imagination, but with historical accuracy as well.

          Having proven himself as perhaps America's most succesful painter of historic murals, they approached Alton Tobey to complete this task. In a period of just over a year and a half, Tobey executed a total of more than 350 individual paintings for the 12 volume series. Thousands of copies were sold all over the world, and the original books themselves are now considered collectors' items. A small collection of these paintings, all original oils, can be seen on this page.

Boarding The Mayflower #305. Oil on board 9 x 22 V. 1, p. 54-55

Pilgrims #992. Oil on board 19 x 27 Cover & Back Cover, Volume 1

Cartier & Agohanna # 395. Oil on Canvasboard 6.5 x 11 V. 1 p. 30

Niewe Amsterdam # 324. Oil on board 15.5 x 11.5 V. 1 p. 63

The First Thanksgiving # 011. Oil on board 6.5 x 11 V. 1 p. 45

          The first few volumes in the series dealt with the explorers, and early settlers who befriended the native Americans, referred to in those days as Indians, and established colonies throughout the northern Atlantic coastal area.

A British Ambush # 165. Oil on Canvas on board 18 x 26 V. 2 p. 144-5

The Death of General Wolfe # 009. Oil on Canvasboard 6.5 x 11 V. 2 p. 158-9

           The French and Indian Wars broke down these friendly relationships and many of battle scenes such as the ones above were part of the volumes that dealt with our country's strife during these times. Sections of the book leading up to the American Revolution and the War for Independence were profusely illustrated with dozens of Tobey's paintings.

The British Surrender at Yorktown # 164. Oil on Plywood 16 x 22 V. 3 p. 268-9

          This painting by Tobey shows the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown, a crucial event in America's independence from Great Britain.

Custer's Last Stand # 395. Oil on Canvas 17 x 16 V. 6 p. 494-5

          Dozens of paintings in the book vividly and accurately illustrate scenes such as this one of General Custer's last stand.

General Pershing # 009. Oil on Canvas 6.5 x 11 V. 8 p. 656

General Robert E. Lee # 08l. Oil on Canvasboard 11 x 8 V. 5 p. 430

          Over a hundred single-figure portraits of important people in our country's history are contained in the dozen volumes, almost all of which were done from extesive research done by the artist in archives at the Smithsonian Institution and by using other academic resources.

The Assassination of President McKinley # 120. Oil on Canvasboard 9 x 22 V. 7 p. 584-5

The Great Chicago Fire # 113. Acrylic on board 8.5 x 32 V. 6 p. 498-9

A Depression Bread Line # 395. Oil on Canvasboard 9 x 17 V. X p. XXX

           Some of Tobey's most dramatic paintings are of scenes of tragedy, such as the assassination of President McKinley and of the Great Chicago Fire. The ravages of the Great Depression are expressed in the soulful expression of a man in the foreground with people in a bread line seen behind him.

A World War Battle # 005. Oil/Cvsbd. 10 x 14 V. 5 p. 400-1

Fireside Chats # 395 Oil on Cvsbd. 24 x 20 V. 8 p. 720

Enrico Fermi # 395. Oil on Plywd. 16.5 x 22.5 V. 9 p. 762-3

           The 20th Century, covering the World Wars, the great changes in government and society during the FDR administration and even the success of the atomic energy project in the first splitting of the atom, under the direction of Enrico Fermi, were covered by Tobey in every kind of subject for his paintings from intimate personal portraits to scenes of battle.

Mount Rushmore # 115. Oil on Canvasboard 18 x 24 V. 10 p. 866-7

           Each volume in the series contained a fold-out print of a major painting in the book, suitable for framing. The final Volume 12 contains this image of the Mount Rushmore Memorial as the featured work. One wonders if the publishers decided on this painting as the last fold-out because they realized that the research and artistic creative work involved in completing the hundreds of paintings for the books was easily comparable to the physical work done on this mountain -- a truly monumental accomplishment.

    " There were no second thoughts. Once a thing was done, there was such a pressure to continue that the result was that I just had to decide the correct shape, speed, color and texture before I put on a stroke. And by the time the last painting was done, I was reasonably finished as well!"

--- Alton Tobey

           This is very possible, because they happily fulfilled their promise to the artist to send him and his wife on an all-expense paid trip to Europe for 65 days, if he completed the project in under three years. After doing it in less than half that time, and he and his wife went happily off to Europe!

A new page containing over 4 dozen more of Tobey's historical paintings from The Golden Books was added to this site on March 26th, 2005. If you haven't seen them yet, just click on the first link below at the bottom of this page to go there, or just click here to see them.