BOSTON MA Ether Monument c1910 Real Photo Postcard

Lavishly illustrated, this encyclopedic volume provides the most comprehensive look at the history and culture of real photo postcards to date. The Real Photo Postcard Guide is an informative, comprehensive, and practical treatment of this wildly popular American phenomenon that dominated the United States photographic market during the first third of the twentieth century. Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh draw on extensive research and observation to address all aspects of the photo postcard from its history, origin, and cultural significance to practical matters like dating, purchasing, condition, and preservation. Illustrated with over 350 exceptional photo postcards taken from archives and private collections across the country, the scope of the Real Photo Postcard Guide spans technical considerations of production, characteristics of superior images, collecting categories, and methods of research for dating photo postcards and investigating their photographers. In a broader sense, the authors show how "real photo postcards" document the social history of America. From family outings and workplace awards to lynchings and natural disasters, every image captures a moment of American cultural history from the society that generated them. Bogdan and Weseloh’s book provides an admirable integration of informative text and compelling photographic illustrations. Collectors, archivists, photographers, photo historians, social scientists, and anyone interested in the visual documentation of America will find the Real Photo Postcard Guide indispensable.

The postcard craze that swept the United States in the early 20th century coincided with the spread of pocket cameras and led to the phenomenon of real-photo postcards, so called because they were mostly made by small-town amateur and professional photographers and printed in their darkrooms, usually in quantities of less than a hundred (unlike the contemporary mass-produced photolithographs). Real-photo postcards were typically produced in small, often isolated towns whose citizens felt an urgent need to communicate with distant friends. The cards document everything about their time and place, from intimate matters to events that qualified as news. They depict people from every station of life engaged in the panorama of human activities -- eating, sleeping, labor, worship, animal husbandry, amateur theatrics, barn raising, spirit rapping, dissolution, riot, disaster, death. The phenomenon began in 1905 and peaked in the 1910s, when many millions of real-photo postcards were mailed each year. Previous books have been content to display these cards for their socio-historical or nostalgia value; this book goes much further. The 122 postcards it reproduces cover the entire field of the cards' subject matter, but Luc Sante illuminates them with the penetrating, stimulating analysis expected from a writer hailed as "a singular historian and philosopher of American experience." Sante wants us to see the images not simply as depictions of a vanished way of life, but as a crucial stage in the evolution of photography, possessing a blunt, head-on style that inherits something of the Civil War photographers' plain aesthetic yet also anticipates the work of Walker Evans and other great documentary artists of the 1930s. Combining all his gifts as a chronicler of early 20th-century America, a historian of photography, and a brilliant critic, Sante shows how real-photo postcards offer a revealing "self-portrait of the American nation."

What makes Washington, D.C., so attractive to so many people? Locals and visitors in the nation's capital may respond with a range of generic answers, but one top response will always be the great monuments. From Washington, D.C.'s historic beginnings in the 1790s, these prominent structures soon became an important identifying feature of the district and a way to preserve its past. This book examines a number of significant monuments, memorials, and historic sites through stunning black-and-white photographs spanning a century and a half. Historic Photos of Washington D.C. Monuments highlights chapter-by-chapter the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and other monuments receiving significantly less foot traffic?but ones that are no less significant. The memorialized figures, the architects and artists behind the structures, and captivating historical facts are further explored in accompanying captions. Each chapter also looks at historical events that took place at these

Release Date: October 15, 2005

The postcard craze that swept the United States in the early 20th century coincided with the spread of pocket cameras and led to the phenomenon of real-photo postcards, so called because they were mostly made by small-town amateur and professional photographers and printed in their darkrooms, usually in quantities of less than a hundred (unlike the contemporary mass-produced photolithographs). Real-photo postcards were typically produced in small, often isolated towns whose citizens felt an urgent need to communicate with distant friends. The cards document everything about their time and place, from intimate matters to events that qualified as news. They depict people from every station of life engaged in the panorama of human activities -- eating, sleeping, labor, worship, animal husbandry, amateur theatrics, barn raising, spirit rapping, dissolution, riot, disaster, death. The phenomenon began in 1905 and peaked in the 1910s, when many millions of real-photo postcards were mailed each year. Previous books have been content to display these cards for their socio-historical or nostalgia value; this book goes much further. The 122 postcards it reproduces cover the entire field of the cards' subject matter, but Luc Sante illuminates them with the penetrating, stimulating analysis expected from a writer hailed as "a singular historian and philosopher of American experience." Sante wants us to see the images not simply as depictions of a vanished way of life, but as a crucial stage in the evolution of photography, possessing a blunt, head-on style that inherits something of the Civil War photographers' plain aesthetic yet also anticipates the work of Walker Evans and other great documentary artists of the 1930s. Combining all his gifts as a chronicler of early 20th-century America, a historian of photography, and a brilliant critic, Sante shows how real-photo postcards offer a revealing "self-portrait of the American nation."

Lake Boon is a beautiful 65-acre lake located west of Boston. Beginning in the 1920s, its accessibility from Boston and western suburbs via two railroads made it a popular vacation spot. Attracted by its natural beauty, a lively and decorous summer community grew and returned year after year to enjoy boating, bathing, fishing, and many other activities. Photographers were also attracted to the lake, and many of their images became postcards used by the lake residents and visitors to send to friends and relatives. Through vintage postcards, Lake Boon is a visual journey around the lake as it looked in the early 1900s.

What makes Washington, D.C., so attractive to so many people? Locals and visitors in the nation’s capital may respond with a range of generic answers, but one top response will always be the great monuments. From Washington, D.C.’s historic beginnings in the 1790s, these prominent structures soon became an important identifying feature of the district and a way to preserve its past. This book examines a number of significant monuments, memorials, and historic sites through stunning black-and-white photographs spanning a century and a half. Historic Photos of Washington D.C. Monuments highlights chapter-by-chapter the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and other monuments receiving significantly less foot traffic—but ones that are no less significant. The memorialized figures, the architects and artists behind the structures, and captivating historical facts are further explored in accompanying captions. Each chapter also looks at historical events that took place at these monuments, including political rallies, civil rights demonstrations, and speeches given by those who helped shape the nation. It is hoped that readers of Washington D.C. Monuments—from D.C. residents and visitors to art enthusiasts, history buffs, and architecture lovers—will visit these hallowed places and see for themselves why people love Washington, D.C.

What makes Washington, D.C., so attractive to so many people? Locals and visitors in the nation’s capital may respond with a range of generic answers, but one top response will always be the great monuments. From Washington, D.C.’s historic beginnings in the 1790s, these prominent structures soon became an important identifying feature of the district and a way to preserve its past. This book examines a number of significant monuments, memorials, and historic sites through stunning black-and-white photographs spanning a century and a half. Historic Photos of Washington D.C. Monuments highlights chapter-by-chapter the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and other monuments receiving significantly less foot traffic—but ones that are no less significant. The memorialized figures, the architects and artists behind the structures, and captivating historical facts are further explored in accompanying captions. Each chapter also looks at historical events that took place at these monuments, including political rallies, civil rights demonstrations, and speeches given by those who helped shape the nation. It is hoped that readers of Washington D.C. Monuments—from D.C. residents and visitors to art enthusiasts, history buffs, and architecture lovers—will visit these hallowed places and see for themselves why people love Washington, D.C.

Release Date: June 29, 2009

ARIZONA Real Photo Postcards: A History & Portfolio by Jeremy Rowe (Photography in Arizona) Beginning with a history of postcards, Rowe explores interesting facets of early Arizona as visually captured by professional and amateur postcard photographers. The topics include mining, labor unrest, the advent of the automobile, construction projects like the Roosevelt Dam, town life, Indians, disasters, the Mexican Border War, aviation, photography and land development. In addition to an array of captivating images, Rowe provides an in depth survey of postcard collecting past and present, aspects of collecting, and features of postcards including postmarks, dating and styles. Everything the collector needs to know is included in this book, and any student of the development of the American West will be delighted by the quality and extent of the information provided by the spectacular assortment of images. 176 pages; 7 x 10; Illustrated; Dating and Identification Guide; Bibliography; Endnotes; Appendix; Index.