Postcard History

A magazine for the postcard collector

The Lost Summer with Sandra Cobb

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In the early spring of 1950 signs like this one started to appear in the front windows or on the front doors of homes across America. This one from Connecticut and ones like it appeared as warnings that a quarantine was in affect designed to prevent the spread of polio. Postcard History’s guest contributor, Sandy Cobb relates how the flu epidemic of 1918 and the polio pandemic of 1950 were dealt with in her home state of Virginia.

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One Year Ago This Week

Darius

Why Is
Postcard History?

Postcard History is a free online magazine dedicated to vintage and historic picture postcards and the many stories associated with them.

We feature richly illustrated articles designed to both inform and entertain postcard collectors and history buffs.

We also provide the most comprehensive listing of forthcoming shows around.

And there’s a rich trove of links to institutional and personal online postcard collections. There’s also a comprehensive, verified listing of active postcard clubs in the U. S. and Canada, which we’re working on expanding worldwide.

Coronavirus impacts postcard shows
Our Show Calendar has the latest information on what shows in March and April have cancelled, been postponed, have not decided, or at this time are still planning to continue.
We’ll update this as things change. Check back regularly for the latest.

News and
Noteworthy

July 8, 2020

We don’t follow Antiques Roadshow very closely (another one of our numerous character flaws), so we missed this 2012 episode on real photo cards of the 1908 U. S. Olympic team that participated in the Games in London. It features a fascinating collection of over 60 cards, each one of them autographed. We don’t know whether to take the host’s pricing estimates seriously, though.

Brian Lund is a really serious British postcard collector — “I’ve been in the postcard collecting  hobby for quite a long time” he says as an introduction to this video clip. But for our purposes today he’s a storyteller extraordinaire. He maintains a Facebook site called “Reflections of a Bygone Age” which you can access whether you’re a member of Facebook or not. He tells the story of a postcard that went so far awry that . . . well, click onto the video and see for yourself.

There was a time when “collect all ten” was a come-on for Burger King or Cracker Jack toys. Collectors of postcard sets know this all too well. But is it still relevant today? “Collect all 10 of these vintage-style Detroit postcards” blares the headline of this August 1, 2018 article  from the Detroit Metro Times. Turns out this is an advertisement for a developer in downtown Detroit. There aren’t 10 cards shown on the page, so scroll down to the third paragraph and click on the red “Curbed” link. The developer (Kraemer Design Group) has created these 10 cards and is offering them for free (well, free two years ago, anyway). We think it’s a pretty clever way to gain attention to a worthy commercial cause, the repurposing of an older downtown.

Most Recent Article

A Day at the Sitting Bull Stampede

July 6, 2020 1 Comment

The Rodeo is almost foreign to most Americans. Sad. It may be the ultimate test between man and beast. It is not an easy task to wrestle 3000 pounds of bull to the ground or stay seated in a saddle strapped to a horse that doesn’t want you to sit on his back. Which is faster? Which is stronger? Who is most agile? These are question the professional rodeo cowboys and cowgirls answer every night when they go to work. This story takes you to South Dakota in 1946. A true time machine.

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