“Cottage country” has a lot to offer recreationally. Well, the fish aren’t nearly quite as big as the ones in this 1926 real-photo exaggeration postcard of Jonah and the Whale at North Bay, but no doubt some of the fishermen in your family will claim “the one that got away” was this big. The other real-photo exaggeration postcard is unusual for the inclusion of a frog as part of the fishing image. An explanation of the photographic process used to make these “tall tale” postcards, as they are also known, can be found at the Wisconsin Historical Society’s web page about photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson and at the American Museum of Photography’s page on “trick” photographer William H. Martin.

Novelty postcards come in a variety of materials, from leather to birch bark, and can include embroidery, applied glitter, felt pennants, real feathers, hair, ribbon and buttons, among other materials. This scarce handmade birch bark postcard is in perfect condition. It’s nicely detailed and says: “We buy our worms at Sunset Park and sure get the big ones.” Notice the uneven borders, which the maker had to contend with as best he could when creating the postcard, while at the same time not splitting the bark. They’ve even drawn a stamp box on the reverse!

A scarce c. 1925-1926 real-photo postcard does double duty as a novelty postcard in its unusual use as a raffle ticket. Members of the North Bay Citizens’ Band pose on the steps of City Hall to have their picture taken by local photographer J. A. Noel. Tickets for the raffle, the proceeds from which were earmarked for “Music and Accessories,” cost 25 cents each; this was ticket No. 205, the right half having been removed to enter the raffle. Prizes, which were a silver casserole, a cut glass berry bowl and a silver bread plate, could be previewed at Thomas Co.’s jewelry store, which is seen to the right in a 1923 postcard. Thomas Jewelry is the foreground store which has an awning saying “Watch Repairing & Optical Goods.”