Sunday, March 11, 2007

How old is my postcard? Part 8 The Linen Era

Welcome to Moody's Postcards, your source for vintage, collectible postcards! My name is Richard Moody and I started the company in 1986 and we have been accumulating "old" (otherwise known as "vintage collectible") postcards for twenty years. We specialize in United States view postcards but we also have thousands of antique foreign views, topical postcards and trade cards. Our goal is to exceed your expectations and provide a superior selection of the collectible postcard you are searching for.

The sixth postcard era is the Linen Era, 1930-1945, and is so named because of the linen like paper with a high rag content used in combination bright inks. Large quantities were produced and these postcards were considered cheap and were largely ignored until the 1990s. As the generation from this era began to graduate into their later years, interest began to pick up as many of the cards were local views of those towns where they grew up. Popular views included the small town street scenes, swimming pools, schools, factories, military bases, roadside motels and the LARGE LETTERS "Greetings from" postcards to give you an idea of what is available. The first is a 1937 typical small town street scene in Casper Wyoming.

The second is a 1938 aerial view of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company's Fairfield Tin Plate Mill, the United States Steel Corporation's "newest" expansion in Fairfield Alabama.

Next time we will examine the Photochrome era which will bring us to the present.