December 13, 2012
Today’s installment in our quick run through my (small) collection of vintage Christmas cards is this lovely, but undated, “Coaching Scene in the days of Longfellow.” It’s hard to read the coach’s name, but it look like it was perhaps the Commodor and that it traveled between Boston and New York.
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December 12, 2012
Here’s the second vintage Christmas postcard from my collection of six (hey, I said it was a small collection) …
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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!
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This first one is actually an undated card, not a postcard, but it does feature of lovely pair of Art Deco horses.
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December 10, 2012
On a sunny day in Short Hills, New Jersey (c. 1901), people, horses, and vehicles were waiting at the train station.
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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.
The Slower Road 