I have been led down another rabbit hole by a mildly boring art postcard, and I am going to take you with me as I reflect on the trip. But first, let me introduce you to a Chicago banker of a previous century. Lyman Gage made his mark in Chicago, where he startedContinue reading “Banker as Santa?”
Tag Archives: Postcards
Double Dutch
When last we spoke, we were discussing the Dutch kids in love, those smiling, happy wooden-shoed children who, at least in American postcards of the 1910s, spoke a fluent Pennsylvania Dutch, to nag about why you haven’t written, to espouse certain positive philosophies, or to reflect on the course of love. (As noted byContinue reading “Double Dutch”
Wooden Shoe Know It
It has been a little while since we checked in with the Dutch kids, and their postcards do keep rolling in. For those of you who missed my earlier perorations on the subject, there was, in the 1910s, a mysterious (to me, anyhow) fascination with postcards featuring children who dressed in the folk costumeContinue reading “Wooden Shoe Know It”
What’s the Story, Morning Glory?
In my pursuit of archaic humor, I rely, as any detective would, on a combination of information and deduction. I have learned, when a caption aooears on postcards by different artists, to check the world of advertising or the realm of pop song. This has led me to a greater familiarity of the recordingsContinue reading “What’s the Story, Morning Glory?”
My Room Marked With Y
Not long ago, I mentioned in this space the way some people will go on vacation and, far from being grateful, spend the whole time complaining. I will excuse the numerous postcards which complain either a) that the vacation never seems long enough or b) that you need another vacation to recover from theContinue reading “My Room Marked With Y”
Pick of the Litter
I suppose someone out there in the world of postcards knows a whole lot more than I was able to learn about Vincent V. Colby, an artist responsible for a LOT of postcards in the 1910s or thereabouts. Anybody with this body of distinctive work must have had a fan who dug out informationContinue reading “Pick of the Litter”
Number One Column
There has been absolutely no call for equal time, but we did commit a modest oversight a few months back with a series of columns on what dogs do, and what babies do. Although there was a brief examination of the possibility that cats also did such things, we may have given you theContinue reading “Number One Column”
Drawers’ Choice
Once upon a time, mackerel jellybeans, one had to be so careful what one said. Every word had to be measured before uttered, lest it cause offense. And there were people on the alert for these offenses, so they could point them out to you and cry out to the world that you wereContinue reading “Drawers’ Choice”
Vintage Whine
I have called sending postcards the equivalent of texting or tweeting a century past. (The very mention of texting and tweeting makes me seem a century old to numerous people who moved past those things ten years ago, but I can’t see a lot of them reading my blog.) You could use a postcardContinue reading “Vintage Whine”
Hearts On the Plains
The romance of the Old West was established well before the West had gotten that old. Bill Nye, writing for the Boomerang in Cheyenne in the 1880s, liked to point out the difference between the West as it was lived and the West as people in the East liked to think of it. TheContinue reading “Hearts On the Plains”
Blogsy Babbles 