Collectors love postcards picturing the small towns and villages of the early 20th century, especially real photographs. Shown left, this slice of life postcard is rather unusual in portraying a ghetto scene on the East Side of New York, one of the most densely populated areas of the city. The H.H. Tammen Co. published this view of an undesirable area of the city.
Read More +
Does anyone celebrate President’s Day? There’s something so bland about the made-up holiday that it must pass most people without a flicker of interest. A century ago, George Washington’s birthday was a red-letter date. An impressive number of postcards were made and sold to celebrate his life and his birthday — so many that they’re still fairly easy to find.
Read More +
Put your imagination in high gear, and there are some magical surprises waiting for you on postcards. Before surreal art, before electronic games that take the player into strange new worlds, there were artists who created their own fantastical worlds on postcards.
Read More +
Sometimes it’s the little details that make a postcard stand out from similar ones. This is certainly true of Christmas cards that show the toys children might expect from Santa Claus in the early 1900s. The toys spilling out of Santa’s bag tell a story all their own and add to the charm of the artwork. Read More +
Thanksgiving postcards are easy to find, colorful,and reasonably priced, for the most part, but do they tell anything about the Pilgrims they commemorate? Read More +
Longtime collector, columnist and member of the Post Mark Collectors Club, Paul Petosky is usually occupied with finding relics from Michigan’s postal history. Hidden deep in his vast collection is an astounding group of vintage and obsolete postmarks from a fast fading era. Read More +
My youngest granddaughter has a bumblebee costume for Halloween, but she won’t do any trick-or-treating, at least not until she learns to walk. She’s typical of a whole generation of children whose parents delight in dressing them in weird and colorful costumes for the spooky holiday. Read More +
How many of your happiest childhood memories involve guilt-free indulgence in candy? Chocolate bars, homemade fudge, cotton candy at the county fair, jellybeans and all-day suckers are the comfort food of the young, and it’s easy to be nostalgic about enjoying sweet treats without any concern for the consequences. Read More +
History was never one of my favorite subjects in school, but as a “more mature” adult that has changed tremendously. Working for the largest indoor antique market in the world has opened the door to new adventures and given me a whole new perspective on history as well as life. Read More +
Author Harold Zosel, a 48-year resident of St. Cloud and an active member of the Stearns History Museum, shares his personal historic photograph and postcard collection in “St. Cloud,” a recent addition to the Postcard History Series from Arcadia Publishing, a leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Read More +