December 12, 2012
Here’s the second vintage Christmas postcard from my collection of six (hey, I said it was a small collection) …
.
.
.
The text on the back reads, “Here we come in Essex Coach, to wish you a Merry Xmas.” The postcard was sent to Mrs. Harris in Louisville, Kentucky, and postmarked December 22, 1925.
December 11, 2012
I have a few paper-based collections, not counting shelves full of old books: a few original nineteenth-century coaching prints (which are framed and hanging in our living room), quite a number of original orange-crate labels (some of which are framed and hanging in our kitchen, and the rest of which are destined for the walls of another room), and a small but growing collection of old Christmas postcards with pictures of horse-drawn vehicles.
My plan for these postcards is to put them in small frames and use them as Christmas decorations. But that hasn’t happened yet, which means they’re still easily scan-able … so I’m going to share them with you here. And today is a good day to start this project, I figure, as we’re ONLY TWO WEEKS away from Christmas!
.
This first one is actually an undated card, not a postcard, but it does feature of lovely pair of Art Deco horses.
.
December 10, 2012
On a sunny day in Short Hills, New Jersey (c. 1901), people, horses, and vehicles were waiting at the train station.
.
December 9, 2012
This rather large building was the Algonquin Hotel in Dayton, Ohio, c. 1904.
Parked in front of the hotel are two delivery vans and several bicycles. I can’t read the name on the first delivery van, but the other one is from Pearl Laundry (with a very fancy “L”). Two ladies and a young girl (trying to balance something on her head!) are crossing the street.
December 8, 2012
There’s a lot going on in this photo of Exchange Place (Providence, R.I.), c. 1910. There are pedestrians; cars, horse-drawn vehicles, and a streetcar traveling down both sides of the large square; cars, carriages, and delivery vehicles parked along the right-hand sidewalk; and a multitude of cars parked in the square itself. Then, in the foreground, are eight working vehicles and trailers of various sorts. It looks like these are being used to haul equipment and supplies for road work or construction, judging by the piles of rocks, etc.
The Slower Road 