Vintage Postcards: Postcard Blog

Buffalo Bill Cody and the Wild West

VintagePostcards — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:45:39 +0000

A bit of the Wild West lives on in this scarce c. 1918 real-photo postcard of Louisa Cody, widow of Buffalo Bill Cody. Buffalo Bill, one of the most colorful entertainers of the Old West, was famous for his shows which featured cowboy themes. He died in 1917 of kidney failure; Mrs. Cody herself is elderly in this image. She died about three years after this photograph was taken. A pillow rests at her feet, and her chair is cushioned by a checkered blanket as she suns herself. The real scene stealer is Chief Red Wolf, an Oglala Sioux and American Indian scout who worked with Buffalo Bill. His gaze is piercing. From his elaborately beaded leggings to his feathered war bonnet, his appearance is imposing.

On the the reverse, the antique post card reads: “Compliments of Mrs. W. F. Cody. My Foster Mother and Chief Red Wolf, an old Indian Scout of Buffalo Bill’s. Borned [sic] on Pineridge, S. Decota [the Pine Ridge, South Dakota Indian reservation].” Along the bottom is written the date January 8, 1856. Was this Chief Red Wolf’s birth date, or that of Mrs. Cody? The location is given as Cody, Wyoming.

One of my favorite poems is about Buffalo Bill, and was written by e. e. cummings:

Buffalo Bill’s

defunct

who used to

ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion

and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death

Read about a charming Victorian store, or see more native American post cards at our website. Unwind in the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

A Late Victorian Store in Stony Ridge, Ohio

VintagePostcards — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:17:16 +0000

This simple, yet charming c. 1901-1907 unused advertising postcard shows merchandise which was available in the store of Albert Swartz in Stony Ridge, OH. Baby buggies and “Express” wagons were available, and Swartz carried a variety of bicycles as well.

His shop also offered bicycle repairs and bicycle tires. He specialized in Gendron wheels, which were well-known wire wheels made in nearby Toledo, OH. The Gendron Co. pioneered pedal cars and made wheels for bicycles, tricycles, invalid chairs, go-cars, baby carriages, doll carriages, coaster wagons and toy wheelbarrows. Presumably, all of the wheels shown here in the Swartz advertisement were Gendron wheels. A deceptively simple Wood County post card, and a hard-to-find cycling collectible which was snapped up by an eager collector within days of its listing.

Whatever happened to the Swartz store? Is it still there, restored and operating as a trendy boutique? We wonder what became of it.

Read about a Victorian advertising trade card, or see more advertising post cards and trade cards at our website. Unwind in the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Fanciful Fourth of July Postcards with Uncle Sam and Children

VintagePostcards — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:14:25 +0000

Happy Fourth of July to our readers! July Fourth, with its patriotic images of Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty, and the holiday’s association with fireworks, led to fanciful, festive postcards with splendid graphics at the turn of the 20th century. Above, we see a finely detailed and embossed 1911 Fourth of July post card showing a young girl surrounded by fireworks and firecrackers, as a cannon detonates next to her. The American flag waves patriotically in the background. Now, of course, we’d be horrified to see a child standing next to a detonating cannon.

Everyone would gasp in horror now at the thought of a young boy running with wild abandon while firing a pistol in the air, but Uncle Sam looks on approvingly as he holds firecrackers aloft while fireworks explode in the background. This unused vintage postcard dates to about 1907. Postcards depicting Uncle Sam are themselves highly collectible.

Read about little-known April Fool’s Day postcards, or see more Fourth of July post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Happy April Fool’s Day from France

VintagePostcards — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:25:25 +0000

Happy April Fool’s Day! During the “golden era” of postcard collecting, from about 1901 to 1915, the French loved to send one another postcards celebrating this improbable holiday. April Fool’s Day postcards were quite fanciful and often featured fish, traditionally associated in France with memory improvement. This scarce c. 1915 to 1920s real-photo fantasy post card depicts a flying fish with airplane wings, who transports a young girl while holding a peppermint candy in his mouth.

(Thinking: Drugs? Who needs drugs, with an imagination like this?)

Read about a great Easter postcard, or see dozens of holiday post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Easter Bunny Mother and Child, a Fantasy Holiday Postcard

VintagePostcards — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:25:39 +0000

With the Easter holiday fast approaching on April 12, we just had to share this charming new arrival with you. This c. 1907 fanciful Easter holiday postcard, embossed and gilded, depicts a mother rabbit in a red dress and her child rabbit holding up a sign that reads: “Be Sure and Have a Good Time.” Or, perhaps it’s a schoolmarm rabbit and her student. At any rate, it’s fun.

The antique postcard was published by an unknown postcard publisher in Germany, and is of the high quality — with careful attention to detail — often seen in early post cards published in that country. Happy Easter!

Read more about Easter postcards, or see more Easter post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Bedford, Indiana Outsider Artist August Mack Revisited

VintagePostcards — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:48:06 +0000

We blogged last year about two unusual “outsider art,” or folk art, postcards from Bedford, Indiana which showed the dramatic c. 1940s work and religious visions of folk artist August Gustav Mack. His folk art display was six miles north of Bedford, on State Road 37 in Lawrence County, IN, but we didn’t know much else about this intriguing artist. Surprising new information has surfaced.

Reader David Seaney of Indianapolis, Indiana, who chronicles an amazing number of c. 1920s to 1960s illegal Midwestern casinos and speakeasies at his website, advises that Mack emigrated to America from West Prussia, Germany in 1891, when he was 12. He became a stonecutter in Lawrence County, Indiana, which is world famous for its limestone. Later, in 1942, Mack self-identified as a sculptor.

The alert Seaney also located an August 10, 1931 newspaper article from The Valparaiso Vidette Messenger which contains the story “ Raiders Find Old Time Saloon in a Hen House.” The article contains surprising information about some of Mr. Mack’ other, less-than-godly, activities. It seems that during Prohibition, he ran afoul of the law in Bedford. Mack was operating a speakeasy in a hen house on a farm one mile north of Oolitic, and was raided by [Lawrence County] Sheriff John Tyree and a posse. According to Tyree, one of several of Mack’s hen houses had been outfitted as an old-time saloon and was furnished with tables and chairs, a refrigerator, poker tables and slot machines. Mack was charged with violating prohibition laws and between 500 and 600 bottles of beer, mash and other liquor-making supplies were confiscated.

Reader Seaney also found an eight-year-old post by Sue Mack on the WoodCarvers Web, which reads: “Sometime in the 20s, 30s or 40s, August Mack carved from wood a serpent that is now in a museum. It is called the ‘Brazen Serpent’ and it coiled, hissed, and rattled like a real one. It was 21 feet long and weighed about 300 pounds. It had 362 ribs and over 4000 scales on its body. It had the appearance of a large diamondback rattlesnake. It works by the power of a small motor. We believe he carved it in Oolitic, Indiana which is south of Bloomington, Indiana on Highway 37, just north of Bedford, Indiana. We believe it is in a museum somewhere in the Carolinas or the vicinity. Has anyone seen it? He is an ancestor and we’re doing some family history. He also has carved a merry-go-round and animals until his death on July 26, 1947.”

Feel free to jump into this thread, if you have more information about folk artist Mack. Seaney says there are two other articles about Mack at The Bedford [Indiana] Times Mail website. A June 24, 1997 articles chronicles Mack’s life and works, while an August 4,2008 story is about the mechanical snake. Unfortunately, this is a pay site, and these articles were not accessed.

Read our original post about outsider artist August Mack or see our selection of roadside America postcards at our website. Or, visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Pure Oil Company Gas Station Postcards

VintagePostcards — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:06:07 +0000

As we weather the remnants of the Great Ice Storm of 2009 here in Kentucky and await the return of Alexander Graham Bell’s fabulous invention — the telephone — our mind began to wander to more pleasant thoughts: in our case, roadside Americana that we saw when young(er). Every summer, Dad took us on road trips to historical sites. We think we’ve seen every Civil War battlefield and every museum on the East Coast from Mystic Harbor, Connecticut on down to about the Florida state line.

Bored by battlefields, we began collecting roadside America postcards. An especially nice example which we recently acquired is this c. 1930s triple-view post card of the Pure Oil gas station and roadside motel on Route 11, five miles south of Harrisonburg, Virginia. This old postcard offers an interesting glimpse into motel rooms of the time. Spartan by today’s standards, they offered neither a radio nor a telephone. (Television wouldn’t make its motel room debut until the early 1950s.)

Pure Oil, founded in 1914 in Columbus, Ohio, began building its signature blue-roofed gas stations, based loosely upon English cottage architecture, in about 1926; more “contemporary” designs emerged in the late 1940s. Published by Marken & Bielfeld of Frederick, Maryland, this is a classic roadside America, Rockingham County or petroliana collectible in excellent condition.

See some frightful meteorology postcards and be grateful for the weather you’ve got, or visit our selection of Route 40 postcards at our website to see some more old roadside America postcards. Or, visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Meteorology Postcards

VintagePostcards — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:40:36 +0000

With the temperature predicted to be a balmy 4 degrees F. on Thursday morning, our thoughts have suddenly turned to…keeping warm. We know it could be worse, and thought we’d bring you examples of how it probably could be worse where you are, too. Think positive! In the unused c. 1964 postcard above, we see the devastation along 4th Ave. in Anchorage, Alaska which was caused by the Great Alaskan Earthquake of Good Friday, 1964. Shops, bars and theaters sank from 20 to 35 feet into the ground.

Moving along from seismology, we thought about a good friend who lives in Minneapolis who’s tired of snow. Shortly before Christmas, while stuck at work on the graveyard shift, she sent us a picture of the blizzard she encountered when she ventured out to smoke a cigarette. The picture was captioned: “Merry F****** Christmas!” At least she wasn’t in Fairbanks, Alaska at the First National Bank when the bank’s thermometer displayed a temperature of minus 54 degrees in 1969. The postcard’s caption helpfully explains that “ice fog makes visibility even worse at this 2nd Ave. and Cushman location.”

So there you go, your winter weather probably could be worse. Be grateful for small favors.

Read about an early native American post card, or cheer up while viewing more Alaskan postcards at our website. Or, curl up and browse the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

An Early Cardston, Alberta Blood Indian Postcard

VintagePostcards — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:55:28 +0000

We’re delighted that this scarce 1905 private postcard is going home to Alberta, Canada. Nicely detailed and highly collectible, it shows Blood Indian Wolfchild and his wife and daughter — all dressed in First Nation, traditional clothing — posing outside their log cabin at Cardston, AB.

Sent from St. Mary’s Ranch at Cardston, sender Arthur Berry offered “Kind regards and best wishes for Xmas & the ‘New Year’ ” to a Miss Reeve, who lived at “The Stream” in Chiddingley, Sussex, England.

Read about artist-signed holiday postcards, or see more native American postcards at our website. Or, curl up and browse the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Happy New Year from Two Vintage Postcard Artists

VintagePostcards — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:40:22 +0000

Happy New Year from VintagePostcards.org! Each year at this time, the world is full of hope and promise, that things can and will be better in the New Year. And that’s our wish for you — that your New Year is the best and brightest you’ve ever had.

In the spirit of things, here’s a scarce 1904 artist-signed Gertrud Caspari postcard celebrating the New Year’s holiday. Four children stroll past a castle while bearing a heart, food, money and flowers. Caspari was the most important childrens’s book illustrator of the time in Germany, and was known for her use of the bright, elementary colors seen in this graphically sophisticated composition. It bears a 1903 Dresden postmark and is in excellent condition.

Basically, the earlier the date of the New Year’s postcard, the more valuable it is. Dates after about 1906 are relatively common. You can learn more about Caspari on our reference page about postcard artists.

A graphically striking 1910 New Year’s postcard, artist-signed by H. B. Griggs, shows a toddler with a quill pen writing in a book about the noble aspirations and resolutions that we all have this time of year. Nicely rendered, this postcard was published by Lubrie & Elkins, Series No. 2266, and is in excellent condition.

Read another post about winter holidays, see more holiday postcards, or curl up and browse the world’s largest postcard bookstore.