November 5, 2024
Author: Ray Hahn
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The Bird Charmer at Tuileries Gardens
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Being a bird charmer is not a normal profession but, if you live in Paris, there is a much greater chance that you could actually make a living charming mankind’s feathered friends. The Tuileries Gardens near the Louvre was the perfect place for Henri Pol to ply this trade.
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Bottle Caps and Pink Pearl Erasers
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Since buying my first “collectible” postcard, I have often thought that there are postcards for “everything.” I don’t know if it’s true, but a recent discovery, the card you see here, is my very first Bottle Cap postcard. So, check Bottle Caps off the list.
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It isn’t déjà vu, but I guess it’s close.
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A rug gallery in Paris sells the dust from its valuable carpets? Here’s the story.
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Good Morning, Mr. Selfridge
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Viewers of National Public Television will remember the Selfridge mini-series, Mr. Selfridge, The main character, played by Jerome Pivins captured our hearts with his antics that made us laugh and cry.
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Meet Nipper, the RCA Dog
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Nipper, was easily amused. Legend tells that Nipper would sit in front of an Edison phonograph and quizzically gaze into the horn from which came some of the first recorded sounds in history. “His master’s voice,” is very doubtful, but his owner, the English artist Francis Barraud, painted the dog and entitled the picture, His…
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Bible Stories on Postcards
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The earliest Bibles were illustrated, so when postcards came along, it was a natural extension. Such cards have been produced in every language and in every country where the Bible is read. Here are cards from two American series, Pilgrim Press and G-A Novelty of New York, which show the diversity of the stories illustrated.
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Sarah Bishop
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One of the “Strangest” Postcards Ever! The postcard here is truly unique. A guess would date the card from the 1930s. It tells the story of Sarah Bishop of North Salem, New York. (North Salem and South Salem, New York are in the Taconic Valley, near the boundary line with the state of Connecticut.) Together…
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The Iroquois Theatre Fire
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Chicago, December 30, 1903. Fire, smoke and chaos caused by fear, killed over six hundred soles today at the new Iroquois Theatre on Randolph Street. That’s the way the lead story in the Chicago Sun-Times began on the morning of December 31, 1903. A grusome story of death and suffering that need not have happened.…
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Qianlong’s Marble Boat That Doesn’t Float
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Remembered by those who have visited as the Marble Boat and known by the Chinese as the Boat of Purity and Ease, is not marble and it is not a boat. This remarkable structure is a two-story pavilion made of wood that stands at the edge of Lake Kunming – part of the area known…
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The Dr. S. F. Smith House
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About ten years ago, I sat down next to a lady at a postcard show in New York. She recognized me, although I don’t know why. She was aware that I often research many of the cards I buy and she asked if I would research a postcard she had purchased just an hour ago.…
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Red Cross Postcards
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The Red Cross was founded by Henri Dunant, who was present at the Battle of Solferino in 1859, at which 40,000 men were killed or wounded. Dunant spent the next five years trying to get support for his plan and succeeded in convoking a convention of interested persons in Geneva, Switzerland in 1864. After the…
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Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Carpenters’ Hall has so much history associated with it that dozens of books could be filled with its stories. The oldest trade guild in America, the Carpenters’ Company of Philadelphia, has owned and operated the hall since 1771. The Hall has been home to a host of firsts including the First Continental Congress, Benjamin Franklin’s…
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Stone and Chisels
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The first time mankind saw his own image reflecting in the water of an ancient pond is lost to history. But it didn’t take long to perfect the skill of chiseling away just enough stone to make a rock look like a person. A thousand years later the sculptures appeared on postcards.
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The International Meridian Conference
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Many things in history affect our lives every day and we have no or very little awareness of those events. This 1884 conference is one such event.
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George L. Fox, the American Grimaldi
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George L. Fox The American Grimaldi I discovered this card some years ago. I have no idea where or when, and I have been pushing it around my desktop for a long time. I had no idea who George L. Fox was. He had a look of a Civil War general, but generals’ pictures were…
