Category: Articles

  • First article May 30, 2019!

    First article May 30, 2019!

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    Postcard History is about the stories that collectors find in the cards they collect. These stories are not always obvious  — we learn about them by sharing our finds with other collectors. Every Monday and Thursday you’ll find out about what your fellow collectors have discovered in their cards. Your collection has a story to…

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  • The Mansfield Bar

    The Mansfield Bar

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    The press said Jayne Mansfield was decapitated when her car rear-ended a semi. It wasn’t true, but a movement arose to put safety bars on the rear of every truck. And they’re called . . .

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  • Shot Towers

    Shot Towers

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    Is it some sort of munitions testing facility? Why build it in downtown Baltimore? There’s a reason for everything, and then I found out there were lots of them, and some are still around, almost 200 years and several technological revolutions later.

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  • The Bird Charmer at Tuileries Gardens

    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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  • The Healing Hands of Mahlon Locke

    The Healing Hands of Mahlon Locke

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    Dr. Mahlon Locke built a reputation for treating rheumatism in the 1920s and 1930s. Denounced as a “faith healer” but admired as a “foot twister” and “hoof doctor,” he treated thousands of sufferers at his clinic in Williamsburg, Ontario.

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  • About Face

    About Face

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    Every once in a while, I see a face that brings a particular character trait to life for me. When I find a postcard with such a face, I just have to have it. It doesn’t matter whether the card is domestic or foreign, new or old, in excellent or poor condition — it just…

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  • Bottle Caps and Pink Pearl Erasers

    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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  • Thomas Edison and Henry Ford

    Thomas Edison and Henry Ford

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    Thomas Edison and Henry Ford had become friends when Ford worked for Edison in Detroit. They established Winter retreats next to each other in Fort Myers, Florida. The inventor and the automobile magnate collaborated on several projects and were still close when Edison died in 1931.

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  • Inside Sing Sing Prison and The Mutual Welfare League

    Inside Sing Sing Prison and The Mutual Welfare League

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    Forty miles north of New York City, “up the Hudson River,” Sing Sing Prison got a new warden in 1915. Thomas Mott Osborne ushered in a wave of penal reform. Out went the lockstep, in came (limited) prisoner self-governance. T. Fred Robbins, a nearby photographer and constable, was allowed to document many of the changes…

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  • A Day at Disney World

    A Day at Disney World

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    Disney World creates life-long memories for all who visit. Those who go there share their experiences by sending postcards. Read about the author’s visit to that magic Kingdom.

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Past Article

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American travel logs are laced with tales of tourist inns and destination hotels. Such places were found in the Catskills, Appalachians, Sierra Nevada, and Rocky Mountains. The whole family could play together or enjoy their individual interests. Green Park Inn at Blowing Rock, NC, was one of the best.

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