Postcard America

Postcard America

Author: Jeffrey L. Meikle

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2016-01-20

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 0292726619

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From the Great Depression through the early postwar years, any postcard sent in America was more than likely a “linen” card. Colorized in vivid, often exaggerated hues and printed on card stock embossed with a linen-like texture, linen postcards celebrated the American scene with views of majestic landscapes, modern cityscapes, roadside attractions, and other notable features. These colorful images portrayed the United States as shimmering with promise, quite unlike the black-and-white worlds of documentary photography or Life magazine. Linen postcards were enormously popular, with close to a billion printed and sold. Postcard America offers the first comprehensive study of these cards and their cultural significance. Drawing on the production files of Curt Teich & Co. of Chicago, the originator of linen postcards, Jeffrey L. Meikle reveals how photographic views were transformed into colorized postcard images, often by means of manipulation—adding and deleting details or collaging bits and pieces from several photos. He presents two extensive portfolios of postcards—landscapes and cityscapes—that comprise a representative iconography of linen postcard views. For each image, Meikle explains the postcard’s subject, describes aspects of its production, and places it in social and cultural contexts. In the concluding chapter, he shifts from historical interpretation to a contemporary viewpoint, considering nostalgia as a motive for collectors and others who are fascinated today by these striking images.


Folk Photography

Folk Photography

Author: Luc Sante

Publisher: Verse Chorus Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1891241559

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A penetrating analysis of the real-photo postcard phenomenon of the early 1900s. These cards depict the now vanished world of small-town America, but also represent a pivotal stage in the evolution of photography. Their head-on style inherits something of the plain aesthetic of the Civil War photographers, while anticipating the great 1930s documentary artists such as Walker Evans. Fusing his skills as a chronicler of early 20th-century America, a historian of photography and a keen critic, Sante shows how these postcards offer a revealing 'self-portrait of the American nation'.


Golden Gate National Parks Postcard Book

Golden Gate National Parks Postcard Book

Author: Michael Schwab, gra Gra Gra

Publisher:

Published: 1998-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780811820479

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Graphic artist Michael Schwab has created an outstanding new look for the Bay Area's most beloved outdoor treasures. Perfect for nature-loving natives and tourists alike, this colorful, graphically striking collection gives a modern spin to the national parklands of the Golden Gate.


Postcards from the Soul

Postcards from the Soul

Author: Foster Care Alumni of America

Publisher:

Published: 2011-09

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 9780983937005

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When you open Postcards From The Soul, you'll see into the depths of the often-hidden emotions of people who have shared extraordinary experiences. This collection of postcards is both moving and illuminating. The emotions are raw and genuine. Every postcard tells a piece of the life story of a real person. Maybe even somebody you know. These postcards resonate because they reflect a universal condition: Living in the face of adversity. They speak to all people wanting to have a sense of belonging and to be loved, heard, safe, and respected. They often reflect loss, abuse, abandonment, hurt, and the mental health and addiction struggles of the postcard author or of someone close to them. By sharing their inner-most thoughts, the creators of these postcards hope that you will have a better understanding of some of the struggles they endured, and that through their sharing you will want to make a difference for someone else who may be facing adversity in their lives.


Rick Steves' Postcards from Europe

Rick Steves' Postcards from Europe

Author: Rick Steves

Publisher: Rick Steves

Published: 2009-04-01

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1598803611

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In Postcards from Europe, Rick Steves takes you on a private tour through the heart of Europe - introducing you to his local friends and sharing his favorite travel moments - from the Netherlands through Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, with a grand Parisian finale. Whether you're dreaming in an armchair, have packed, or are unpacking, Postcards from Europe will inspire a love of travel, of Europe, and of Europeans.


Montclair

Montclair

Author: Philip Edward Jaeger

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 9780738534756

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Montclair, New Jersey, like most American towns, has grown dramatically over the course of the last one hundred years. Much of the early 1900s landscape has been disguised, and the town has come to reflect the popular styles and fashions of changing eras. Streets have been paved, the facades of commercial buildings have been updated, and homes have been altered to reflect contemporary tastes and accommodate modern conveniences. This volume of approximately two hundred postcards from the author's collection, most never before published in book form, captures Montclair as it was in the early twentieth century. The reader will see familiar landmarks such as the Montclair Art Museum, the Marlboro Inn, and the Bellevue Theater as they originally appeared, and discover the vanished predecessors of the Japanese-style mansion on Upper Mountain Avenue and the Rockcliffe Apartments off Crestmont Road.


Postcards from the Chihuahua Border

Postcards from the Chihuahua Border

Author: Daniel D. Arreola

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2019-10-29

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0816539952

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Just a trolley ride from El Paso, Ciudad Juárez was a popular destination in the early 1900s. Enticing and exciting, tourists descended on this and other Mexican border towns to browse curio shops, dine and dance, attend bullfights, and perhaps escape Prohibition America. In Postcards from the Chihuahua Border Daniel D. Arreola captures the exhilaration of places in time, taking us back to Mexico’s northern border towns of Cuidad Juárez, Ojinaga, and Palomas in the early twentieth century. Drawing on more than three decades of archival work, Arreola uses postcards and maps to unveil the history of these towns along west Texas’s and New Mexico’s southern borders. Postcards offer a special kind of visual evidence. Arreola’s collection of imagery and commentary about them shows us singular places, enriching our understandings of history and the history of change in Chihuahua. No one postcard tells the entire story. But image after image offers a collected view and insight into changing perceptions. Arreola’s geography of place looks both inward and outward. We see what tourists see, while at the same time gaining insight about what postcard photographers and postcard publishers wanted to be seen and perceived about these border communities. Postcards from the Chihuahua Border is a colorful and dynamic visual history. It invites the reader to time travel, to revisit another era—the first half of the last century—when these border towns were framed and made popular through picture postcards.


As We Were

As We Were

Author: Rosamond B. Vaule

Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9781567922509

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Today, no one seriously doubts the value, both aesthetic and historic, of the ubiquitous American photographic postcard. This was the medium that really brought photography to the masses; these cards were affordable, they were topical, and they could be sent for a penny anywhere in the country. The variety of imagery, much of it developed anonymously in small studios, much of it taken by inspired amateurs (these were the days when anyone could, and many folks did, own a camera) displays America in all its variety and vitality. Most postcards were mass produced and printed in ink by the collotype or halftone process. But a few were original photographic prints, exposed directly from glass plates or film negatives. Known as real photos these were real photographs, aristocrats of the genre and spectacular examples of vernacular photography. In this charming and scholarly book, Vaule selects the best of them, from all over the country, addressing their social and historical contexts, explaining the mysteries of their manufacture and dissemination, and describing the characteristics and identities of their makers, many of whose names and studios are listed in the book. But without doubt, it is the images themselves that still hold us: storefronts and townships, frisky children and sober adults, air ships and barn raisings. Over one hundred are reproduced here, each in fine-line duotone, each as fascinating and compelling today as when first fixed on paper.