I have restricted each entry in the Directory to one card. Where there is another excellent card, I will put it on this page with a link to the Directory entry.
Meantime, here’s a rather sweet card by an unknown publisher bringing Christmas greetings in 1902. It is one of the few undivided-backs to feature a motor car.
“Do you remember this old cottage. This is what the high road looks like now-a-days.”
American News Company
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World’s Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. Officially named the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, it was held in Fairmount Park along the Schuylkill River on fairgrounds designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. Nearly 10 million visitors attended the exposition, and 37 countries participated in it.
Situated high atop a hill presiding over Fountain Avenue, Horticultural Hall epitomized floral achievement, which attracted professional and amateur gardeners. Unlike the other main buildings, it was to be permanent. Horticultural Hall had an iron and glass frame on a brick and marble foundation and was 383 ft (117 m) long, 193 ft (59 m) wide, and 68 ft (21 m) tall. The building was designed in the Moorish style as a tribute to the Crystal Palace of London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. Inside, nurserymen, florists, and landscape architects exhibited a variety of tropical plants, garden equipment, and garden plans. In dramatic fashion, the exposition introduced the general public to the notion of landscape design, as exemplified the building itself and the grounds surrounding it. A long, sunken parterre leading to Horticultural Hall became the exposition’s iconic floral feature, reproduced on countless postcards and other memorabilia. This sunken garden enabled visitors on the raised walkways to see the patterns and shapes of the flowerbeds. After the Exposition, the building continued to be used for horticultural exhibits until it was severely damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and subsequently demolished. As a replacement, the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center was built on the site in 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial exposition.
Source: wikipedia
Postmark: Post Office stations and branches are facilities subordinate to a local Post Office that provide a range of postal services. Until 1908, the terms station and branch were used interchangeably in the US. From May 1908 station referred specifically to units located inside city limits. Station F in Washington DC was established as a limited-service station on 1 May 1886 at 1921 PA Avenue NW and was converted to Station 3 on 1 March 1895. A new full-service Station F was established at 3204 14th St. NW on 12 April 1896 and its name changed to U Street Station on 1 November 1916.
Sources: About USPS; La Posta
Blum & Degen
Bruck & Son
Henri Cassiers
Detroit Photographic Company
Detroit Publishing Company
This card is addressed to Mr AF Partridge of Leominster in Herefordshire, England. The Hereford Journal of 17 June 1905 reported a cricket match in which a Mr Wolfenden bowled A. F. Partridge. Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald of Saturday 26 March 1910 reported Mr. A. F. Partridge, Leominster was one of four competitors entered a competition in response to the offer by the Royal Agricultural Society of a prize of £100 for the best hop-drying apparatus.
On 5 October 1968, in advising of the death of his son, AL Partridge, the Kilvert Society newsletter referred to the death in 1957 of AF Partridge, the grand old man in the pith helmet who had been the weakly baby baptised at Clyro Court Farm by the Reverend Francis Kilvert. Mr Partridge attended all the Society’s events up to his death.
The reference to the White Star Line above the addressee’s name seems likely to be an indication of the desired mode of conveyance. The era of mail-carrying steamships started in 1839, when White Star Line’s archrival Cunard was awarded a mail contract. By 1859, post offices were being put onto steamships, but it was only in 1877 that White Star ships could use the much-coveted designation RMS (Royal Mail Steamer). To make sure that the companies met the stringent requirements, the contracts had to be renewed every few years.
By the terms of White Star’s 1899 agreement, their mail ships had to be the fastest, largest, and most efficient. They were required to make a weekly mail run and could go no slower than 17 knots. Mail contracts were lucrative as well as prestigious.
This card was sent by Dr Luther Michael MD, Supreme Medical Director of the Sons and Daughters of Protection, Ferndale, California on 23 March 1905. Wikipedia’s list of North American Fraternal Orders says that they were founded in 1896 with headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska. They had 1,825 members in 1905 and appear to have become defunct by 1910.
Dr Michael registered them in California on 11 July 1903. William Alexander Ring. Other organisations appear to have had the words Rising and Royal before the same name.
On Monday 28 January 1901 the Lincoln Journal Star reported litigation between the Sons and. Daughters of Protectlon and the Bankers’ Union of the World in the district court late on the previous Saturday afternoon arising out of a takeover by the latter. On 10 May 1901, The Nebraska State Journal reported that, at a special meeting of the Bankers’ Union on 8 May in Hebron, Nebraska, resolutions were passed transferring the entire lodge back to the Sons and Daughters of Protection.
In 1932 Hebron dentist William Alexander Ring was a life member and one of the founders of the Civil Legion, and a member of the Service Veterans. He belongs to the Hebron Commercial Club, the National Travelers Association and is a former member of the Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, Moose, Sons and Daughters of Protection and the Modern Woodmen of America. Source: NEBRASKANA
Deyring-Honnest
Axel Eliasson
Tar has been transported along the Oulu River since the 16th century, as tar production was already quite common in Northern Ostrobothnia at that time. The 19th century in particular was the era of tar transport, and then hundreds of boats in the summer cooled along the Oulu River with its tar cargo. There were also occasional rides for pleasure tourists: when tourists paid a lot for the ride, tar rowers preferred to leave a tar barrel on land and instead take the passenger in their boat. Tar transportation continued until the 1920s, when the last cargo boats were rowed.
Source: Oulujoen tervansoutu KirjastoVirma
Sallo Epstein
George P. Hall & Son
W. R. Hearst
How the Earthquake tore up the Pavements. This card is a graphic contemporary record of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Franz Huld
Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (12 February 1884 to 20 February 1980) was an American writer and prominent socialite. She was the eldest child of President Theodore Roosevelt and the only child of Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee. She led an unconventional and controversial life. Alice married Nicholas Longworth III, a Republican U.S. House of Representatives member from Cincinnati, Ohio, who ultimately would rise to become Speaker of the House. A scion of a socially prominent Ohio family, Longworth was 14 years her senior and had a reputation as a Washington D.C. playboy. Their wedding took place in February 1906 and was the social event of the season. It was attended by more than a thousand guests with many thousands gathered outside hoping for a glimpse of the bride. She wore a blue wedding dress and dramatically cut the wedding cake with a sword (borrowed from a military aide attending the reception).
Alice publicly supported her father’s 1912 Bull Moose presidential candidacy, while her husband stayed loyal to his mentor, President Taft. During that election cycle, she appeared on stage with her father’s vice presidential candidate, Hiram Johnson, in Longworth’s own district. Longworth later lost by about 105 votes and she joked that she was worth at least 100 votes (meaning she was the reason he lost). However, he was elected again in 1914 and stayed in the House for the rest of his life. Alice’s campaign against her husband caused a permanent chill in their marriage. During their marriage, she carried on numerous affairs. It was generally accepted knowledge in D.C. that she had a long affair with Senator William Borah, who was the father of her daughter, Paulina Longworth (1925 to 1957). Alice was renowned for her brilliantly malicious humour, even in this sensitive situation – she had originally wanted to name her daughter “Deborah,” as in “de Borah.”
C W Faulkner
Illustrated Post Card Company, NY
There were many Hook and Ladder Companies throughout the USA. On January 28, 1884, Daniel D. Hayes’ proposal for the manufacture of a 2nd class Hayes Hook and Ladder Truck was read into the minutes of the Los Angeles City Council. The truck carried six ladders including a Hayes Patent Extension Ladder to elevate sixty five feet from the ground, the main ladder in which shall be 34 feet long, and the extension 32 feet long. In addition, the vehicle was fitted with two short-handled and two long-handled hooks and a chair hook. Curved hooks were for pulling down buildings or portions of buildings in order to create a fire break. In the early days of wood buildings and row housing, the only way to effect a fire break was to tear down a dwelling or outbuilding. Collapsing buildings to create fire breaks was a tried-and-true technique of early firefighting. A large grab hook was attached to about fifty feet of chain and another hundred or more feet of rope. Firefighters would throw the hook through a window and, with all hands helping, they would pull down the house. Flat hooks were for hoisting items over a roof or wall. The Hayes 65 foot Aerial Ladder Truck remained in service until 1904.
Source: Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archive
Fairhill Station The first pneumatic postal tube was installed in the US in 1893 in Philadelphia PA. The tubes were of six inch capacity and the system was gradually extended. As of 30 June 1908 Philadelphia had 6 miles of tubes in operation including Fairhill Station. In January, 1917, Congress began to investigate the efficacy of the tube system. They were told that because of the distribution of Philadelphia’s primary businesses along its outer edges, the pneumatic tube system worked better there than in other cities where the primary concerns making use of them were clustered together. Tests showed that correspondence sent over the tube from Fairhill Station to Station D took much less time to arrive than by truck. Congress wasn’t persuaded and the tubes ceased operation the next year. The volume of mail they had supported nearly overwhelmed Station D. The Congressional Joint Commission on Postal Services report on the state of Philadelphia’s post offices in 1922 recommended the return of the pneumatic tube service.
Source: Hidden City
J. Murray Jordan
The widest point on the Ohio River is just north of downtown Louisville, where it is one mile (1.6 km) wide. The lower Ohio River just below Louisville is obstructed by rapids known as the Falls of the Ohio where the water level falls 26 feet (7.9 m) in 2 miles (3.2 km) and is impassible for navigation.
Steamboats played a major role in the 19th-century development of the Mississippi River and its tributaries by allowing the practical large-scale transport of passengers and freight both up- and down-river. Using steam power, riverboats were developed during that time which could navigate in shallow waters as well as upriver against strong currents. The two types of paddle wheel steamer are stern-wheeler, with a single wheel on the rear, and side-wheeler, with one on each side. Two of the boats in this card appear to be the former type.
After the development of railroads, passenger traffic gradually switched to this faster form of transportation, but steamboats continued to serve Mississippi River commerce into the early 20th century. A small number of steamboats are used for tourist excursions into the 21st century. Source: wikipedia
Jullien Brothers
This card shows a woman in trousers, a phenomenon sufficiently striking for Robert to comment on it.
The Hyde takes its name from a medieval measure of land (c 1281) and was a small hamlet on the junction of London’s Kingsbury and Edgware Roads by the middle of the 16th century. The Kings Arms may have originally been 17th century, but has been rebuilt many times. The writer Oliver Goldsmith lived at Hyde Farm between 1771 to 1774, where he wrote ‘She Stoops To Conquer’ and ‘Animated Nature’. Mrs Harriett Sarah Bennett was still at the King’s Arms in 1914.
The Kings Arms is now Kings Garden Bar and King’s Shisha Lounge including an Indian restaurant. There is a large yard area alongside and a ‘garden’ alongside the Edgware Road.
Khardiache Brothers
Kohn Brothers
This card features Tzar Nicholas II of Russia and Emperor or Franz Joseph I of Austria against the Royalist flags of their respective countries.
Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov (18 May 1868 to 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917.
Franz Joseph I (18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and monarch of other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from 2 December 1848 until his death. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation.
Emile Lacour
This card is postmarked by the Base Army Post Office 5 in Algiers which supported the British North Africa Force (“BNAF”) in 1942-43. It has been passed by the censor of the same base.
The Army Postal Service (“APS”) was not involved in the initial planning stages of Operation Torch, the 1942 Anglo-American invasion of North Africa. As a result, a Base post office was not established in Algiers until a month after the invasion and through no fault of the APS the mail services to the BNAF were very poor in the initial stages. This was worsened by the fact that a convoy carrying the Christmas mails was sunk.
After consultation between the military authorities and the APS, air links with the UK were established and both air letter and airgraph services were made available. Kodak established an airgraph processing station in Algiers, which was later to process the airgraphs sent by troops engaged in the Italian Campaign.
In theatre the mails were carried along the North African coast to the front lines by sea, rail and vehicles. The road service that operated over 500 miles from Algiers to the front was described as having the “the regularity of a town collection in peacetime Britain”. A staff officer with the 6th Armoured Division commented that “As soon as the tanks pulled out of battle, there was the mail waiting for them – incredible”.
Presumably the serviceman who sent it was sold this forty year old card on his way through Marseilles to the front.
Source: Unit History: British North Africa Forces
Louis Lagaert
This Card: Adolphe Leray, (also Le Ray) dyer, poet and singer, born in 1810 in Hollain, a small village south of Tournai. Le Ray can be considered the grandfather of the chansonniers of Tournai cabaret. From his father, a dyer whom he succeeded in that trade, and his Breton mother, he inherited his love of his origins as much as his talents for satire and banter. His wrote songs in French and the Tournaisian Picard patois such as Cheoncq Clotiers (1838), Jesus passing through Tournai, Sainte Catherine and Mad’moiselle Brindamante.
In 1888 this fountain monument was erected on the Place du Becquerelle. The sculptor was Amédée Huglo (1845 to 1923). In 2003 the bust was stolen. As part of a renovation of the vicinity, a new bust was replaced on the stone base and was inaugurated on 23 June 2017.
Not to be confused with French radiologist Adolphe Leray (1865 to 30 April 1921) .
Lichtenstern & Harari
Midan El-Ataba El-Khadra is the site of Cairo’s largest fresh food market. It is sometimes referred to simply as Ataba Square, which means ‘threshold’. It is situated between the old and modern cities. Traders set up beneath the arcades of the ancient buildings and sell all types of bric-a-brac. Booksellers have sold their wares on the northern side of the square since the 1930s. Nearly all the trams in Cairo started their routes here.
This card was sent from Port Said, Egypt in May 1906 by a Welsh sailor serving on SS Sirocco, a British-built cargo ship. She was renamed SS Sizergh Castle in 1913 and lost in 1919.
H. Sandow was Master of the SS Sirocco when he served as one of the nautical assessor called to assist at the inquiry into the circumstances attending the stranding of the SS Fifeshire on the night of 9 August 1911, south of Guardafui. Cape Guardafui is a headland in the autonomous Puntland region in Somalia.
Source: wrecksite
G. Lips
- Automobile “Martini” sur la chemin de fer des Rochers de Nava
Martini was a pioneer Swiss automobile manufacturer, in operation 1897 to 1934. In 1897, Swiss businessman Adolf von Martini, son of Friedrich von Martini, the inventor of the action used in the Martini–Henry rifle, built an experimental rear-engined car. He followed this with V4 cars of 10 hp (7.5 kW) and 16 hp (12 kW) in 1902. As Swiss cantons were unusually hostile to cars, the company had to rely more than most on exports, and demand from abroad proved sufficient to justify building a factory in Saint-Blaise in 1904; von Martini relied on a licence from Rochet-Schneider of France, using an armoured wood chassis and mechanically operated valves.
His British sales agent, Captain H. H. P. Deasy, made the headlines when he drove a cog-wheeled Martini up the Rochers De Naye Cog-wheel Railway at 11-km with an average gradient of 22%. Rochers de Naye (2,042 metres (6,699 ft)) is a mountain of the Swiss Alps, overlooking Lake Geneva near Montreux and Villeneuve, in the canton of Vaud.
A car said to be a modern body on the original rolling chassis including engine, clutch, gearbox, front and rear axles, steering and some bodywork was included in Bonhams’ Sale of Collectors’ Sports and Grand Touring Motor Car at the Musee International de l’Automobile, Geneva on Monday 10 March 2003. It sold for $298,294, including buyer’s premium, which reflects the few Martinis that were built and survive today.
By 1906, Deasy was Martini’s sole salesman. That summer, with a 20 hp and a four-cylinder 40 hp available, Deasy made an ill-advised challenge to Rolls-Royce (which had a six-cylinder engine); Deasy, and (more importantly) Martini lost the 4,000-mile (6,400 km) “Battle of the Cylinders”.
Source: sportscarmarket.com
This Addressee: H.M.S. Britannia was the name given to the British Royal Navy’s ship used for the preliminary education of naval officers from 1859 to 1905. It was anchored first at Portsmouth, then Portland, and finally off the town of Dartmouth in Devon. The first ship used was the 1820 three-decker Britannia, which was replaced in 1869 by the three-decker Prince of Wales, which became the fifth ship to bear the name Britannia. From 1864 onwards the two-decker Hindostan was moored ahead of Britannia and connected by an enclosed gangway, providing extra accommodation and classroom space.
Cadets joining the Royal Navy were entered into a “term” in Britannia, in which they remained for two years of instruction. The number of terms started each year varied, ranging from two to four before normalising at three per annum. If cadets gained enough time through scholarly aptitude and good behaviour, upon leaving for the fleet they were rated Midshipmen; if not then they left as Naval Cadets and had to pass further examinations to become Midshipmen. Over the forty-six year life of Britannia, the training and education changed continually, with seamanship and mathematics being the only constants.
James Bruce North Carvick (born 26 February 1889) was one of sixty-nine cadets accepted for entrance with the September 1903 intake term at H.M.S. Britannia following competitive examinations held in July 1903. The format and order of the names suggests they are listed in order of merit and Carrick was second in the list. James Bruce North Carrick became Midshipman on 15 January 1905.
Lieutenant James Bruce North Carvick was killed at Tara Hill in the battle of the Somme on 7 August 1916. He was then serving with the 24th Australian battalion having transferred from the 23rd.
Source: Australian Red Cross; Dreadnought Project
I. L. Maduro
Hermann Martin
Nels
Carto.net attributes Serie artistique to Nels though it doesn’t bear his name.
Neurdein Brothers, Paris
An SPA logo appeared on the cards of various publishers into the divided-back era. There seems to be some link with the annual exhibition of art organised by the Société des Artistes Français and, indeed, some of the cards seem to be reproductions of the works shown in the Salon de Paris.
However cards like this are not artwork. My best guess is that there was an exhibition of postcards under the auspices of the Salon de Paris Association and that cards that were exhibited were rewarded by being allowed to bear the logo.
Joseph Nuss
- Edition Delft, J. N. A.
Nuss’s cards included artist-drawn maritime scenes and Dutch costume. Although it isn’t an official language of Netherlands, their Dutch-themed cards were captioned in French.
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print and appears to have been used with good results to create the effect of the typical tile in the Delft edition.
Photoglob
Rotograph Company
COPYRIGHT 1906 BY S.F. RUINS PUB. CO
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday 18 April, with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9. High-intensity shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died. Over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest earthquakes in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California’s history and high on the lists of American disasters.
Saalfeld
Former police and army officers Caspari Roth-Roffi opened the first private detective agency in Berlin around 1880, early on at 23 Dessauer Strasse. By at least 1898, CRR were boasting of being the oldest in Germany. As well as credit information, much of their work was detecting adultery with which to provide evidence in divorces. They also were also engaged to check out suitors of the young women of the house.
The business made extensive use of postcards to advertise both their earlier office, their general information bureau at 134 Leipzigerstrasse and the 128 Koniggratzer Strasse in this 1900 card. In 1902 Caspari-Roth Roffi petitioned the Reichstag regarding amendment of article 138 of the Criminal Code which criminalises failure to report planned serious criminal offences.
They were advertising in 1913 as Caspari-Roth Roffi & Pelzer with an illustration of a hand grabbing a snake and offices in Berlin and Frankfurt. Erich Nabert owned it at 12 Gr Backerstrasse under the new name.
U.S. Souvenir Post Card Co.,
International Souvenir Post Card Co.,
New York
Despite the separate entry for the USSPCC, it may be that they are the same company as the Souvenir Post Card Co., N.Y. The lower card has the earliest use of postcard as a single word I have come across.
Undivided-back Postcards 