All I can say is, wow. I did no color work on these vintage postcards. These are scans of the real thing. These came in booklets. The postcards were perforated and folded out accordion-style to be torn out and used, only no one ever used any of these. I believe the Great War, World War I, was the first war to use mechanized devices such as trucks, motorcycles, and of course airplanes. I have more than one hundred of these and will continue to scan them for this blog.
The following images are photoshopped collages I've made using some of my postcards from this era, along with other period imagess.
These postage stamps were actually used on other postcards from this 1917-1920 period. The "Argonne Victory" is a newspaper article about important battle of the war.
The lady in this image was a great-aunt of my mother's, who fell very ill in 1919 of the Spanish Influenza, waiting for her brother to return from the war. He returned in fine shape, she never really recovered to full health and died in the late 1920s.
The horse image is for "Mellow Stock Pipe Slices," some form of tobacco I suppose, dating to 1918.
Casey I love the collages. Those are awesome. The war postcards are sort of beyond belief...the effort they went to through to make those pretty is sort of disturbing, since of course the originals were hand-colored. Are the flowers supposed to be a distraction or enhancement I wonder? Thanks for sharing them.
ReplyDeleteCASEY, MY BROTHER WAS ON THE SHIP CALLED THE MISSOURI. DO YOU HAVE ANY PICTURES OF OLD WAR SHIPS FROM WW2? I LOST HIM TO CANCER JUST A FEW YEARS AGO AND THERE NOT A DAY THAT GOES BY THAT I DON'T THINK ABOUT HIM.SIL IS NOW IN HER 80'S AND SHE'S DOING RESEARCH WHEN SHE HAS GOOD DAYS ON HIS SERVICE DAYS. IN FACT, HE WAS GIVEN ONE OF THE FLAGS THAT THEY FLEW ON THAT SHIP. SIL STILL HAS IT IN A GLASS CASE IN HER LIVING ROOM. OH, I JUST REMEMBER I CAN LOOK IT UP ON GOOGLE.LOVE THE PICTURES ABOVE. ALSO YOUR AUNT. VERY NICE.
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In the first few colored pictures, it looks like thty could spread a blanket and break out a picnic basket.
ReplyDeleteReality was a bit different. My great uncle was the victim of a mustard gas attack.
I REALLY ENJOYED EACH OF THESE POSTCARDS. LOOK HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS. I THINK BACK THEN IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN AN EVEN FIGHT COMPARED TO TODAY. I THINK EVERYONE NEEDS TO GIVE EVERYONE A HUG THEN FIGHT. I'D RATHER FEEL THE WARMTH OF A HUG THAN THE HURT OF A FIGHT.
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I must admit, the flowers really sugarcoat a war effort, don't they? Could you even imagine this type of postcard for Vietnam - or Iraq ? Amazing! Interesting to see the turn of the century tanks, grub wagon, and the period clothing. Especially love how you put together the collages, especially the one with your great-great aunt - beautiful.
ReplyDeleteGranny, yes, I have some photos of WW2 ships also. I'll look around and gather a post about them soon.
ReplyDeleteBEFORE I GET OFF FOR A WHILE BECAUSE IT'S JUST TO HOT IN THE HOUSE, I WANTED TO ASK YOU CASEY. HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT PUTTING ALL YOUR THINGS IN A MUSEUM? GOT TO GO.
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Casey,
ReplyDeleteMellow Stock Pipe Slices - Derby...maybe Kentucky? Is that a tobacco state?
http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx358/markin208/Tobaccooutside.jpg
http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx358/markin208/Tobaccoinside.jpg
when I'm gone I assume they'll all end up in a museum. i've got certain items earmarked for local historical groups and some for the library of congress, mainly the historical photos and negatives.
ReplyDeleteHey Marius, that's exactly the same tin! the underside of mine says FACTORY NO.2 DISTRICT OF MD, so maybe Maryland? It definitely looks like a racing horse in the image and those ARE racing caps underneath it. All of the imagery is cool, the horse head is encircled with a gold boot spur. Maybe they're used in racing, or were used in racing? Even the banner is probably race-derived.
ReplyDeleteHi Casey, as you know this subject is near and dear to my heart. Below is the citation for the Distinguished Service Cross that was awarded to my Uncle John after his death.
ReplyDelete*GUESS, JOHN, JR.
Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to John Guess, Jr., Sergeant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company H, 364th Infantry Regiment, 91st Division, A.E.F., near Eclisfontaine, France, September 28, 1918. Assisted by another sergeant, and leading a combat group across an open valley under constant hostile fire, Sergeant Guess completed the capture of four machine-gun nests and three prisoners. He was seriously wounded in the encounter and died soon afterwards.
•General Orders No. 21, War Department, 1919
Born: at El Monte, California
Home Town: El Monte, California
Eclisfontaine was in this general vicinity of the Meuse Argonne offensive.
The letters my Uncle wrote home to his mother, were much like the flowery postcards, he never depicted the war as bad as it actually was, I'm sure out of love and concern for his mom but I doubt if it would have passed the censor's eyes either.
In my research both the written accounts and the filmed accounts by the military and journalists paint a very grim picture.
I think we will see more of the horrible side of war depicted now, such as The Hurt Locker and In the Vally of Elah and less of the John Wayne stories of war.
Dead bodies are easier to count than the dead soul/minds that come home with military men/women.
thanks Annie for posting that citation. I have much more WW1 stuff I'll post at some point. I just added a 'doughboy' postcard in my newest post. All of the letters I have from my grandfather back home were all light-hearted as well, never really writing about the war itself, probably for the reasons you give. I've transposed more than 200 pages of letters back and forth so far from 1917-1920.
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