Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy Greetings for a Joyous New Year + PFF

A Bright and Joyous New year

Happy New year to you all! 2010 has only several hours left and then it is on to 2011! Seems unbelievable that the first decade of the 2000's is over. This year went by really fast.

I hope you do indeed have a bright and joyous New Year and happiness and good fortune to you. Thanks so much for keeping up with my blog. I love sharing my collection with you.

New Years Greeting

Today is Friday, which means Postcard Friendship Friday and I can actually get in on this one. Visit The Best Hearts are Crunchy blog and see other postcard bloggers New years Greeting. And thanks to Beth for hosting!


Friday, December 24, 2010

A Dolly for Sue

Christmas Eve is here. Santa has been spotted over Romania at this time. I'm finishing up some wrapping and getting things together. I wanted to post a couple more Christmas photos before it's over.

christmas tree

This is a lovely Christmas morning tree. Look at all those Christmas cards! So pretty.

christmas family

Here is a perfectly posed Christmas card from Dick, Violet, Christine, Ricky and Gretchen.
The little one (I assume Gretchen) seems to have gotten the lesser deal here. Her sister has a microscope and her bother a trumpet and and she gets a book of mazes.

I hope you all have a Christmas full of beauty, love and laughter. Merry Christmas!


Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmastide

Still time to get some Christmas postcards in! Hopefully I'll get in another post before the day is over. it sure is moving fast!

This is a really neat Christmas card. I appreciate it when the designers choose uncommon colors for Christmas cards. This postcard has nothing written on the back except 1928.

christmas and an orange moon

And I like this one becasue of the tea kettle - another unique Christmas image (at least in the U.S.) and that they used the term Christmastide. I always mean to use that more. I have seen it on a number of old Christmas postcards. No writing on the back of this one.

christmastide

Monday, December 13, 2010

The Holly and the Ivy

10 days till Christmas and I have so many Christmas postcards yet to post. I collect them all year and now I'm running out of time! Oh well, there's always next year.

Here are two pretty ones for you. Hope you all are having a wonderful Holiday season.


hollyivy1

hollyivy2

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Gifts for Postcard Lovers

I love seeing postcards used for arts and crafts items. That's why I originally started collecting them - to use them in art projects (and to "save" them) and now I just collect them. Although I do still have many ideas all the time of projects to do - just little time.

Here are some neat things I have seen online that uses postcards. Maybe it will inspire you for a gift for the postcard lover in your life (and it's okay if that's you).


a post a plate from justnoey




A lovely way to keep your favorite postcards or love letters from Tuuni





There are lots of pendants on Etsy made from vintage postcards. I love that this one has the postmark on it, too. From Smokinmudproductions




Here is a pretty garland made from copies of old postcards. This is something you could make yourself or get from VintageScraps



This is an interesting way to use your vintage postcards. As a divider for a diy calendar. See more about this project on DesignSponge

Hope that gets you inspired. It totally gets me inspired. If you have any neat ideas for postcard crafts or postcard related gifts, please let me know. And if you need postcards or some unique stocking stuffers, please check out the shop. Thanks!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thanksgiving Greetings

thanksgiving card

I like to think that this cute plump lady is rethinking the turkey for Thanksgiving. Being a vegetarian (well, really, a pescatarian) I will be partaking of salmon in place of Turkey this year. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!


Sunday, November 7, 2010

Multnomah Falls

mult falls pc

Here's a postcard from 1903 from Multnomah Falls, here in Oregon.


mult falls postcard

Here is a postcard of the falls from 1918.


multnomah falls

Here is a pic of the fall that I took yesterday. More pics of the trip to the falls on my other blog, PonyBoy Press.

Friday, November 5, 2010

birthday girl

It's my birthday today, so I couldn't let the day go by without posting one of my vintage birthday postcards. This is a real pretty one, more of a card I think, although it's only one side. Unfortunately, nothing is written on the back.

I have had a wonderful last couple of days filled with friends, tea parties, vintage stores, autumn drives and good food. I am looking forward to more of the same tonight and tomorrow.

Hope you have a wonderful autumn weekend. Happy Postcard Friendship Friday. Please visit some other postcard blogs that are participating. Follow the link.


Monday, October 25, 2010

homebody

I spent most of the weekend home. I love being home. I am a total homebody. I mostly worked, cleaning and organizing. Still, it was great, especially with the windows open and the sound and the smell of the rain outside.

My love of being home is one of the reasons I like this 8x10 photograph in my collection so much. I also really love seeing the insides of people's houses in old photographs and the forties are one of my favorite times for designs and textiles. This photograph looks like it was taken in the late 40's or early 50's. Unfortunately there is no writing on the back. Click to see bigger image.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

you're invited

I got a couple of very different invitations this last weekend at the postcard club meeting. I love old invitations. I love that people kept them in such perfect condition for so long. I imagine it was because they had an especially good time at this party.

Below is an invitation from July 12th 1907. This seems to be a photograph actually. Handmade and then printed like a photograph on thin paper.

card party

It's an invitation to a Card Party and Dance put on by The Officers mess, Fort Stanton, N Mex


This invitation is in incredible shape considering it is from 1880. It looks like it is less than ten years old. These people had money. It's high quality paper and beautiful letterpressing.

In 1880 James Garfield was President and the first electric streetlight was installed in Indiana.

25th wedding anniversary

Celebrating their 25th Anniversary on October 2nd, means they were married in 1855.
That was a time when there was no electricity, but sewing machines and the telegraph were exciting new inventions.

I have more invitations to share with you in the future. Do you keep your invitations? Hope you have fun at some parties this upcoming holiday season.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

friend to friend

friend to friend

A little heartfelt message for you today on this sunny fall day. I have been happily taking care of many computer related projects today. If I only had about 1000 more days like this I might get caught up.

I added a couple listings to The Cedar Chest today. You have no idea how many things I have that I want to list in the shop. Just need to get the time. Today I listed a couple vintage 80's sewing patterns of my mom's and some really neat 1914 illustrated postcards of animals.

And one more thing, just between us, friend to friend. I got a somewhat exciting message from the legal dept of Warner Brothers a couple weeks ago asking if they could use a scan of a trade card I posted online for a film. I asked them, of course, what film it would be for. Figuring it would be some unknown small thing.

But, no, it is for the new Sherlock Holmes film! So, somewhere on the set of Sherlock Holmes apartment in the new Sherlock Holmes II film there will be a bulletin board and the trade card below will be there (from this earlier post).



I know that it probably won't even be visible, but I love that it will be there. And I think set dressing is so interesting and impressive. Every single item has to be made, bought or created. So much work and few people even see most of it! One of the things I like about watching movies I've seen many times is looking past the speaking actors and looking at the room, the decorations or the extras in the back.

Hope you all have a nice week!


Sunday, October 3, 2010

singular

I had a discussion with someone recently about collecting old photographs and she mentioned she likes to collect photos of women standing by themselves looking strong and solid. As soon as she mentioned it I realized that I am drawn to and collect those, too, without really realizing it.

The first image I thought of when she said that was this one of Ethel, that I absolutely adore.


ethel

I also really love this one. Just now after scanning it I could have lightened up to see more of the background, but it looks so good in the original dark state. I really like her outfit here. Such soft prettiness next to the industrial setting is great here.


dark girl

This next one is more about the freedom to have fun to me. I love the old Rink sign and that she had a fun filled day of skating, presumably, in that hat and long dress. Perhaps something that was scandolous and wild to the older generation.

rink


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

having some fun

Last week I spent a few days on the Oregon Coast. It was beautiful.

While I was there I got to visit a huge antiques store in the small town of Wheeler where I got these funny photos. I love this first one so much! Why aren't there more of these kind of cut outs in tourist places anymore. They're so fun.



Friday, September 3, 2010

home again


I am sending off all of the postcards with the holes in them that I wrote about first here and then here.

I wrote the daughter of George Kimber after the last post, finding her university email address. I told her about them and offered to send them back to her family if they wanted them.

Here is part of her response:

Your e-mail comes at a propitious time. When I got to England I discovered that my sister and her husband are actually assembling family material to write up the history of Arthur C. Kimber (my grandfather) and his son Arthur C. Kimber (my uncle who died in action during the last year of the first world war). These postcards would be a great help in producing a time-line of the family’s activities in these years. (We have no idea – yet - why the postcards have holes in them!)


Can you imagine someone emailing you out of the blue and knowing all this stuff about your family, writing about it on the web and having a box full of related postcards to all members of your family! I can't. And yet, I was presenting that to her. How could I not when I saw I could contact her?

As much as I love my vintage photo and postcard collection, I also would gladly give them all away to the rightful owners. I think most collectors would. We appreciate them so much, but also acknowledge that in the wonderfulness of these paper records is sadness that this little history is no longer with the family.

Postcards especially contain in them little everyday moments. Especially in the early part of the twentieth century when they were sent all the time and not just on vacation.

Now, the remainder of the Kimber family can see some of these moments that they have never seen before. This makes me happy and I wish I could see their reaction to opening the box and looking through the postcards the first time.

Wherever they were the last few decades, they will be back with the family soon. Off they go!

Friday, August 27, 2010

evidence

I have been busier than I would like to be lately. Where did the summer go? I can't believe it is already the end of summer. This weekend is the Portland Zine Symposium. It is the tenth year and I have been to every one. I will be tabling there with my new zine, Imaginary Life #7.

I love using my old photographs and postcards for zines and art projects. That is why I started collecting them in the first place and also because I was just so drawn to them and to the untold stories they held. I don't have any pics of the new zine yet, but you can see some of the materials I used on the PonyBoy Press blog.

So, hopefully I will be back to sharing my ephemera collection with you soon. Meanwhile, how amazing is this color moving pictures from 1922! You can tell that some of the models don't quite get the moving part and are just posing. Interesting. I noticed that in that film Electric Edwardians.

You can almost hear the director saying, okay move around, do something. Come to think about it, I remember my dad saying the same thing to me and my sister when he would pull us up to use the last of his 16mm reel. You think we would have known to not just pose. Ha!

Anyway, this is beautiful and dreamy and seeing people in color form 1922 is so amazing.


Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Portland Looks Good

I bought this postcard when I was still living in California over ten year ago. I found a bookstore near me in Mountain View that had lots of postcards in the back and I poured over them. I was longing to move to Portland and I collected a number of postcards from Portland and the Pacific Northwest.

Portland does look good lately. Summer here is beautiful. Ten years ago this summer I moved to Portland. Although I miss Bay Area people and some things there, and am very glad I moved here.


This was sent March 6, 1911 to Miss A. Ashenberg
c/o Durkins Liquor Co. Spokane, Wa


Hello there Anna,

Portland looks good. We'll leave sometime this week for Seattle.

Tilly Huedefurdhl
Genr'l Delivery - Seattle

Monday, July 5, 2010

history and happenstance in a shoe box

Image heavy and really neat post below. Click on the postcards to see them bigger.


Earlier this week, while I was preparing the previously mentioned distressed postcards for sale, I noticed for the first time that most of them are addressed to the same last name.

I googled the first one, a Dr Arthur Clifford Kimber and found an extensive history about his son George Card Kimber and his family. George Kimber was a Geographer and the first Vice President of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers. In later years was a farmer in the California Bay Area. He died in 1960.

His father was a Doctor and Reverend who died in 1909. After that the family moved from New York to California.

The history online was very thorough and was provided by his daughter, Clarrisa, a Professor Emeritus of Plant Geography at Texas A&M.

What is amazing is that my box of messed up postcards are all in-my-hand evidence of the timeline from this online history recalling 100 years ago. I have postcards addressed to the Rev. Dr. Kimber, to his wife, to George and to his brother John and Clifford (who died heroically in WWI). I have postcards from the sons to their parents. I have postcards that show addresses from Canterbury, England to Mountain View, Ca. The postcards I have all seem to be from 1905-1912.

How remarkable. Even more remarkable is the fact that I can look up via Google street maps and can see where they lived!

From the history of George Kimber found here.

George Kimber was born July 4, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. His father was Dr. Arthur Clifford Kimber, Jr, Vicar of St. Agustine Mission Chapel in Trinity Parish, New York City. Both his father's parents had come to America from England in the early 19th Century.

George's mother was Clarissa Evans, music teacher and daughter of two old up state New York farming families. George was the youngest of three boys...Throughout his life he was influenced by religion, the temperance movement and music.

This postcard is from Jan 1908, a notice of a change of address from a music store to Mrs Kimber
(now it is a Stur Dee Products store).


As a very young boy, he had a year (1903-4) in England at the Froeble Academy in Canterbury, Kent during the time...his mother took lessons in music and pedagogy. Upon the family's return to New York, his mother took him to be interviewed by the Prescentor at the Episcopal Cathedral of St John the Divine. He was found to have a nice voice, untrained, but he could hit high C!

The postcard below was sent in April 1908.



A postcard dated August 16, 1908 to George Kimber sent to this address in Canterbury, England. It looks as if the whole family went back to England around this time for a visit.


The family moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan in 1908 to be closer to the Cathedral school and their father's church.


A postcard dated Feb 11 1907 sent to George Kimber. He would be 13. Here is where they lived in Brooklyn:


A postcard not dated. Sent to Mrs Arthur C Kimber, Georges mother. Her name was Clarissa. Here is where they lived in Manhatten:



When George's father died in 1909, his mother decided to take her sons to California where her family was then living.

This is the obituary of the father, found online, from The New York times archives. Dated July 27 1909.


They sailed via Cuba for New Orleans where they would take the train on to California. Upon reaching Los Angeles, they proceeded to his aunt's ranch in Hanford, Kings County which was the Evans' family headquarters at that time.

Here is a postcard sent to the George's brother, Clifford on May 16th 1910. (The front of this card is the children with the flag in the previous post.) Here is where they stayed in Hanford. That was ranch land back then.


Mrs. Kimber was anxious to raise her sons in an academic setting and went to Berkeley, the location of the University of California. She became a music teacher using her skill and developing interest in pedagogy.

Here is a postcard from only a month later, dated June 25 1910, sent to George. It is the 4th of July card shown at the top of my previous post. (The 4th of July was George's birthday. Odd how I did that post yesterday on the 4th without knowing that.) It was forwarded to this address in Berkeley.

After a year in Berkeley, she found the city too large and an uncongenial social environment. She decided to move to Palo Alto across the bay where the Stanford University faculty might have a stronger influence on the social climate of the much smaller town. Able to sell some property in New York City from her husband's estate, she bought a small farm nearby.

It looks like the farm was in Mountain View. I lived in Mountain View and there are no farms there anymore, as you can imagine. I wish I could find a postcard with an address from Mountain View, but it was so rural they weren't needed. Here is a postcard to Mrs Kimber from Jan 17, 1912.



You can read all about George and his family, which is impressive and very interesting here. This is where I got the info from. They sure did a lot of moving around for a while.

I had no idea when I first got this box of damaged postcards what it contained. The formative years of a families life from 1905-1912. They moved many times during those years and lost a father. Most of the messages are very short and general. Some are more detailed. Many of the postcards I have are blank. There are some from the Stanford Campus and SF area that were postcards of the 1906 earthquake. This makes me think that at least a number of these if not all of the blank postcards are theirs.

But the real question here is why do they all have at least one hole in them? What happened to them? Maybe the boys used them for target practice out on the farm in Mountain View. They were pretty dusty when I got them. I wiped each one of them off. Probably cleaned off dirt from 100 years ago.

Maybe they were nailed on a wall and quickly yanked out? The small rusty nails that are in a couple of them would support this. Maybe the boys lined a fort wall with them.

Perhaps the farm or fort was on the same land that I ended up living on 90 years later.

All these little pieces of paper I collect, every little one of them, hold stories, represent lives and precious memories to people who are most often no longer here. It is remarkable, exciting and sometimes overwhelming.

If you got this far, thanks for reading and following me on this discovery.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

freedom


Hope you are all having a nice 4th of July. I am using the day today to get to something I have meant to do for a while now.

A few months ago I got a box of vintage postcards from about a hundred years ago. All of them are very distressed and have holes in them. Every single one! What is that about? I have no idea, but I quickly realized that there is some freedom in the damaged postcards. If you like to use vintage postcards for your artwork, these are perfect. I always feel bad cutting up or gluing down a perfectly beautiful old postcard. I mean it survived 100 years or more and now I am going to just cut it up? But, these postcards are already damaged, so no guilt.


The other thing that is neat about these cards is how they look. I like the stained, distressed look of them. And this is real, too, not that tea stained manufactured distressed look.



You can see here a couple that happily fit the theme of the day. I have some listed on my Etsy shop, too. You get 10 assorted distressed postcards for only $3.00!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

a handsome card in every pound

sailboat trade card

One of the reasons I am drawn to Victorian scrap, trade cards and rewards of merit is because I love the idea that just a lovely piece of paper was a prize.

Around 1876 color printing became accessible and affordable. This is when trading and collecting scrap paper became very popular. This led to the a big trend in scrapbooks beginning around the 1880's.

columbia cofee

This is an advertising trade card made around 1880-1890. These decorated paper cards were so sought after that businesses made them just to give away. They figured you would be less likely to forget them if you had a pretty item with their name and business on the back.

This company Closset & Devers sold spices, coffee and tea in Portland. They were the first firm in the Northwest to make use of vacuum coffee can.

This image below taken about 1905 and the information about Closset & Devers was found on Old Oregon Photos. A neat site!