From the first Rose Carnival in 1864, to the Great Earthquake in 1906, and the building of Highway 101, this book documents the history of Santa Rosa, illuminated in over 200 vintage postcards. Included are postcards of Luther Burbank, horticulturalist and local hero, as well as many views of Fourth Street as it changed and grew with the town.
From the first Rose Carnival in 1864, to the Great Earthquake in 1906, and the building of Highway 101, this book documents the history of Santa Rosa, illuminated in over 200 vintage postcards. Included are postcards of Luther Burbank, horticulturalist and local hero, as well as many views of Fourth Street as it changed and grew with the town.
Incorporated in 1858, Petaluma rapidly became a thriving commercial and major transportation center. This carefully curated selection of vintage postcards illustrates Petaluma's identity and pride as it grew from a strategic port location provisioning San Francisco during the Gold Rush to an agricultural and manufacturing town in the late 1800s. After the turn of the 20th century, Petaluma focused on the poultry industry and proclaimed itself "The World's Egg Basket." The cast-iron storefronts and iconic buildings, such as the Carnegie Library, post office, and silk mill, are some of the impressive landmarks constructed during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Images of a busy waterfront with a bustling downtown surrounded by Victorian homes, beautiful churches, and public parks demonstrate the town's development and prosperity.
The postcard has been a popular part of American communication for over a century, documenting both the interest of a place and its history. Captured here in nearly 200 vintage postcards is the unique history of this California town, translated in Chippewa as "Crown of the Valley." The City of Pasadena, just north of Los Angeles, sits against the majesty of the Sierra Madre mountain range. Incorporated in 1885, the city was originally known as a resort city, filled with tourists from all over the world. Showcased here through the use of the author's personal postcard collection are vintage images of Millionaires Row, the Tournament of the Roses Parade, the Mt. Lowe Railway, and the Alpine Tavern.
A Curious Man is the marvelously compelling biography of Robert “Believe It or Not” Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist turned globetrotting millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world's strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable. As portrayed by acclaimed biographer Neal Thompson, Ripley’s life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Buck-toothed and cursed by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation for the strangeness of the world. After selling his first cartoon to Time magazine at age eighteen, more cartooning triumphs followed, but it was his “Believe It or Not” conceit and the wildly popular radio shows it birthed that would make him one of the most successful entertainment figures of his time and spur him to search the globe’s farthest corners for bizarre facts, exotic human curiosities, and shocking phenomena. Ripley delighted in making outrageous declarations that somehow always turned out to be true—such as that Charles Lindbergh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic or that “The Star Spangled Banner” was not the national anthem. Assisted by an exotic harem of female admirers and by ex-banker Norbert Pearlroth, a devoted researcher who spoke eleven languages, Ripley simultaneously embodied the spirit of Peter Pan, the fearlessness of Marco Polo and the marketing savvy of P. T. Barnum. In a very real sense, Ripley sought to remake the world’s aesthetic. He demanded respect for those who were labeled “eccentrics” or “freaks”—whether it be E. L. Blystone, who wrote 1,615 alphabet letters on a grain of rice, or the man who could swallow his own nose. By the 1930s Ripley possessed a vast fortune, a private yacht, and a twenty-eight room mansion stocked with such “oddities” as shrunken heads and medieval torture devices, and his pioneering firsts in print, radio, and television were tapping into something deep in the American consciousness—a taste for the titillating and exotic, and a fascination with the fastest, biggest, dumbest and most weird. Today, that legacy continues and can be seen in reality TV, YouTube, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Jackass, MythBusters and a host of other pop-culture phenomena. In the end Robert L. Ripley changed everything. The supreme irony of his life, which was dedicated to exalting the strange and unusual, is that he may have been the most amazing oddity of all.
From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this golden age can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in Americas history. This fascinating history of Santa Barbara, California, showcases more than 200 of the best vintage postcards available.
Although Pensacola was permanently settled in 1698, not until the harvesting of yellow pine trees between 1870 and 1910 did the city begin to grow and prosper. During this golden era, a building boom transformed the city into a vibrant seaport and economic center. Pensacola's natural deep water harbor attracted merchant ships, and railroads increased access for goods and human transportation. Between 1825 and 1844, the Redoubt, the Navy Yard, and Forts Barrancas, Pickens, and McRee were constructed. Pensacola's many nicknames included "Cradle of Naval Aviation," "Annapolis of the Air," and "Mother-in-law of the U.S. Navy" since a large number of local women married navy men.
Sonoma County, where Californias state flag first flew, is also the birthplace of Northern Californias wine industry. This vintage postcard journey reveals some of that rich history in its trek through Sonoma Countys fertile plains and sun-drenched hillsides, from the vintners cradle in the town of Sonoma, to its northernmost frontier near Cloverdale. Stops along the route include Glen Ellen and the Valley of the Moon, the Russian River valleys, and such industry giants as Italian-Swiss Colony and the California Wine Association. Once boasting the worlds largest vineyard, wine tank, and grape arbor, Sonoma County has long bested its more famous neighbor in number of wineries and grape acreage. Sonoma County, where Californias state flag first flew, is also the birthplace of Northern Californias wine industry. This vintage postcard journey reveals some of that rich history in its trek through Sonoma Countys fertile plains and sun-drenched hillsides, from the vintners cradle in the town of Sonoma, to its northernmost frontier near Cloverdale. Stops along the route include Glen Ellen and the Valley of the Moon, the Russian River valleys, and such industry giants as Italian-Swiss Colony and the California Wine Association. Once boasting the worlds largest vineyard, wine tank, and grape arbor, Sonoma County has long bested its more famous neighbor in number of wineries and grape acreage.
The Santa Rosa Valley, once carpeted in wild oats and littered with acorns from ancient oaks, was home to Pomo and Miwok Indians for thousands of years. The cattle ranches and farms that displaced them in the mid-1800s had already spawned a thriving commercial town named Santa Rosa, the county seat, when the railroad arrived in 1870. That railroad, and the commerce it brought, secured the city's role as the legal and financial nexus of Sonoma County and its most populous city. When many of the downtown buildings collapsed in the famous 1906 earthquake, the community built itself back into a picture-perfect all-American city, the setting for such films as Hitchcock's Shadow of Doubt and Disney's Pollyanna. Another devastating quake in 1969 damaged many structures, but once again that destruction prompted redevelopment and renewed growth for Santa Rosa in the 21st century.
Postcards are an important element of understanding our history, for they provide future generations with a rare glimpse into the past. Since the late 1800s, photographers have traveled around the nation to places such as San Antonio to capture scenes of everyday life and preserve them in this unique form. San Antonio began as a small mission village, a wild west frontier town, and starting point for huge cattle drives northward, and quickly grew into a bustling economic and cultural center for South Texas, luring residents and tourists with its colonial missions, diverse people, prominent military bases, long-standing traditions, and festive celebrations.
