COLLECTIBLES
JOHN CARVELLI COLLECTION
The color and style of postcard images has changed significantly in 100 years. These depict two distinct eras, the black-and-white image on the right is a
photograph taken around 1900 of agricultural workers getting haircuts and the one on the left a chrome- style, colorized photo taken in the 1940s or 1950s.
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are plenty of aerial images of the barrier islands, trailer parks
and young men fishing under the banner “Fort Pierce for
Pleasure.” But each elicits a chuckle and a gee-whiz glimpse
into what appears to be a simpler time.
SHORT AND SWEET
Picture postcards transformed letter-writing culture when
they were introduced at the Chicago Columbian Exposition
in 1893; the craze peaked between 1910 and 1915. White borders
around the pictures denote a specific style that started in
the 1930s; the ones with the big bubble letters saying “Greetings
from” were popular in the 1940s and ’50s.
Advances in printing allowed photo cards, called chrome,
to proliferate from the 1950s onward. Flip the cards over and
you’ll find a variety of styles, with the oldest allowing only
addresses on the back — you had to squeeze a greeting or
message into a tiny space on the front under the photo, something
brief, similar to Twitter’s 140 character limit.
Of course it’s also fascinating to read what people wrote
on postcards: Addressed to Mrs. LeMond, one of Carvelli’s
oldest pieces says, “Mama will you go to the depot and get
the rate for me to go” illegible. It’s a throwback to the area’s
quiet, uncrowded days as the address was only a name and
town without street or zip code.
Postcards made Florida an alluring, exotic destination for
many people. >>
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