May 2, 2024
Category: Articles
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The Cayuga County Totem Tree
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[elementor-template id=”3378″] The Cayuga County Totem Tree FYI: Cayuga County, NY, is the center-most of the three counties that form New York State’s Finger Lake Region. Some of New York’s finest vineyards are in Cayuga County where wines are made that have won awards worldwide. This postcard truly tells its own story from the caption…
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1949: it was a very good year!
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The wines of France set the standard for the world for many centuries, and today the French are still center stage in pleasing wine drinker around the world. Go get a glass of hardy red and enjoy this story of the 1949 Pommard.
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A Not Nice Postcard Collection
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Before privacy concerns and political correctness, victims of a growth disorder were often the objects of mockery and worse. Today the postcards of those individuals are the foundation of databases in at least two medical universities.
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“They ran off to Gretna Green to get married!”
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Impatient young (and not so young) lovers have known since 1754 that Gretna Green was the place to go for a quick wedding. All they had to do was outrun the irate parents to cross the small river bridge into Scotland. “Gretna Greens” in Aberdeen, Ohio and Elkton, Maryland followed in their footsteps.
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Banks Built in the Dutch Style
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When I was a young lad of twelve, my teacher gave our class an assignment to create a career book.
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A Tuberclosis Nostrum and a Long Walk
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Among postcard collectors who specialize in social history, the genre of card you see here is known as a “walker.” “Walkers” are comparatively rare and frequently are real-photo cards.
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Crimes Against the First Amendment
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One day about a decade ago a French postcard became a Napa Valley wine bottle label. The wine was fabulous, but a state agency decided it was unfit for distribution in their state because the content of the label – not the wine, the label was not appropriate in a public setting.
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The Legend of the White Canoe; by William Trumbull (1861-1933)
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Long before the solitudes of western New York were disturbed by the presence of the white man, it was custom of the Indians to assemble occasionally at Niagara, and offer sacrifice to the Spirit of the Falls. The sacrifice consisted of a white birch-bark canoe, being sent over the terrible cliff, filled with ripe fruits…
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Edith Cavell: a Postcard Caused Her Murder
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It seems that the stories of war live forever. One such story is the tragic death of Edith Cavell who died in October 1915 by a German firing squad. The story is related to us by at least three sets of postcards. Read on ….
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The Last Serious Thing!
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[elementor-template id=”3378″] The Last Serious Thing (I plagiarized this title from Bruce Schoenfeld*.) Bullfighting. The very word raises the hackles of some people, and you know who they are; I shall be quiet about who – for now! I have opinions about a lot of things but not bullfights. This is a topic that is…
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The Story of Casey Jones and the Train Wreck That Made Him Famous
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John Luther Jones was born March 14, 1863, first worked on a railroad in Kentucky and at age 25 had enough seniority to join the Illinois Central. Opportunities for advancement were good at ICRR and records show Jones was promoted to engineer on February 23, 1891 and his name first appears on the register book…
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The Perdicaris Kidnapping
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An ancient expression of frustration tells us. “There is nothing new under the Sun.” The story of Ion Perdicaris is proof.
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A Cottage Named Naše Bouda
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Wonderful memories are part of living, and living is how we achieve goodness and fairness.
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Oh . . . Olana, an Awesome Surprise
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To work in such beauty is certainly a distraction, but Frederick Church made the best of the Hudson Valley and became America’s highest paid artist. Read about his home than visit it. You will be awed beyond belief.
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Mount Rushmore
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Mount Rushmore is one of America’s most well known and admired memorials. In spite of its popularity the story is not well known. This bit of American History is well recorded in Bob Toal’s postcard collection.
Past Article
What do you get when you ask an artist and an illustrator team-up to make a set of postcards intended to illustrate the landmarks of Paris? One of the most beautiful sets of French postcards ever made! Alex Chinn, the illustrator and Catherine Klein, the artist are those people. Here is a checklist of their eighteen-card set.