Thursday, August 02, 2007

Old Post Cards



Click on the picture and it will get better.

The above was the Slave Market auction block in Louisville, Georgia. Louisville at one time was the capital of Georgia.

The other day I got a link to the website Penny Post Cards. I like old pictures and that this what this site is, old pictures with a location attached. The site is old post cards, listed by state and county. Of course most of the post cards, if not all, have had artificially color added, probably more dramatic than real life or they are in black and white.

One of the good things I think that it continues to grow. A state you look at today, might possibly have additions the next time you get around looking. And by the same token I think they are hoping you will be inspired to share what you have.

So far I have only went through a few states.





This card is from Arizona and is about “hauling oil to the mines”. My first thought was “20 Mule Products?”






This post card is a school house and the school students with her students at a palmetto thatched structure in the Everglades in Florida.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

nice pictures..steve used to do alot of traveling with a job he had when we first married. i still cherish the postcards from san fransisco, chicago, etc. that he sent to me!

Eddie said...

Bird,
I have been collecting post cards since we been married. Every once in a while Anna will ask me "What are you going to do with all those cards?"
And I more or less say, "I don't know, but when I do decide, I will have them."

kenju said...

Edie, I have over 200 postcards from the 50's to the present. I finally put all of them in an old tin document box and they sit on a table in my living room. Once in a while, I look at them.

I have seen that postcard site too, and I plan to go back to it. If they take submissions, I should send a few.

Eddie said...

Judy,
They do take submissions. I read what they want on their submission section and they want cards before 1940.

Unknown said...

Ed,
That sounds really romantic! Hipster has a habit of buying a local newspaper wherever we are on our anniversary each year. I don't remember if we got one for the last 2 or so years because our local paper only comes out on Thursdays and I don't think our anniversary has been on a Thursday for a while. It's sweet, though!

Eddie said...

Bird,
Well, I guess he can always get a Magic Marker and change it from Thursday to what ever your anniversary date is.... the most it could be is 6 days off.

Anonymous said...

The old cliche is "A pictures speaks a thousand words." I actually consider that to be an axiom, not a cliche. Some of the best primary documents I use in the classroom come from still photographs and cartoons. Some of the Civl Rights era stuff is awesome.

Once I put some WW2 propaganda posters up from the Germans and the USA- the message was the same in each, and the kids learned a great deal from that lesson.

The point is the visual tends to stay with us far longer than the auditory. I think the post cards are the same way. I imagine anyone looking at your posts will keep those images in their heads.

Suzanne said...

One of the things I love most about the research I am doing for my book on New York is that so many of the places that I visit have old postcards on display. Yesterday I went to the Skyscraper Museum and the post cards with drawings of the "tall" buildings were wonderful.

Eddie said...

Steve,
Yep, being a visual-appreciator, I agree with you... pictures are so much easier to comprehend and of course worth 1000 words, if one talks a lot.
Suzanne,
I love museum post cards. They are not mainstream post cards.... some are sitting in racks for years before I come along and buy the first one.

Bhob said...

Marta Becket runs a theater in the old 20-Mule Team Borax buildings in Death Valley Junction:

There's a terrific documentary film, Amargosa, about those buildings and Marta Becket:

Bhob @ Potrzebie

Eddie said...

Bhob,
Thanks for that input.
I think it is great, for some renown person like Martha Becket dive into something like a small town in Death Valley and work on reviving something that otherwise might be passed over in time.