Vintage Postcards: Postcard Blog » July Fourth

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.

July Fourth Holiday Vintage Postcard

VintagePostcards — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:43:57 +0000

What fun! Here’s an unused c. 1907 patriotic Fourth of July postcard with great graphics. The lady has a Gibson Girl-style up-swept hairdo and a finely detailed white lace dress on. She holds aloft a lit firecracker, with more firecrackers and a noisemaker in her other hand. Gilded and embossed, with American flag shields in the bottom corners and the whole topped by an American eagle. We hope you have a great Independence Day!

See more Fourth of July and holiday postcards at our website.

Happy Fourth of July!

VintagePostcards — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 23:40:57 +0000

The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, is always a favorite with postcard collectors, due to the bright, bold graphics used and the attendant theme of patriotism. These post cards are often awash in firecrackers and flags. Here’s one of our favorites: a 1908 antique postcard showing a little girl in a bright red dress, holding a tiny doll and waving a small flag as sailor boys pass by. Strangely, both of the flags shown are backwards. It’s small details such as these which often add to the charm of a vintage postcard.

Although not as bright and colorful, real photo postcards (RPPCs) depicting Uncle Sam are scarce and desirable. The more fanciful and detailed, the better. Here’s a classic Uncle Sam antique postcard, also from about 1908, which is all the more desirable as it shows a child dressed as Uncle Sam. His broad smile shows the pride he feels about being chosen to wear this costume.

Enjoy the selection of Fourth of July and patriotic postcards at our website. And Happy Fourth of July!

Read another blog post about July Fourth holiday postcards.

Happy Fourth of July, v2.0

VintagePostcards — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 00:19:43 +0000

And here’s the fairer sex and our other iconographic image of Independence Day, Lady Liberty, celebrating the Fourth of July. This vintage postcard was published c. 1907-1915. Early Fourth of July postcards often contain some of the most memorable images of any old postcard genre.

See more Fourth of July postcards, or read another blog post about holiday postcards.

Happy Fourth of July, v1.0

VintagePostcards — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 23:36:07 +0000

We’re taking a few days off to conserve brain cells over the long Fourth of July holiday weekend…and so should you, if you’re reading this. We’ll pop in and change the vintage postcard image for you as a surprise on Sunday.

So here’s to Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence and the other cornerstones of the American “Charter of Rights,” the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

Enjoy the Fourth of July postcards at our website, or read more about Independence Day postcards.