Photographic 4th of July

Questions & Common Sense Answers

Charming Vintage Saccharin Containers

What Is It Worth?

The Antique Detective: Collectible Architectural Models

Photographic 4th of July

By Roy Nuhn

As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, July 2007

In all, dozens of six, eight and ten-postcard sets were published for the 4th of July celebration in the early years of the 20th century by a myriad of publishers. These rank among the most patriotic and colorful of all American holiday postcards.

Taken together, they offer us a spectacular razzle-dazzle look at the nation's annual birthday bashes of a century ago. Red, white and blue; Uncle Sam; Miss Liberty; exploding skyrockets and fireworks; and Old Glory. These are just some of the colorful symbols of American liberty and national pride found on classic era Fourth of July postcards. But there are also many collecting treasures of another type, the much appreciated and venerated black-and-white real photo postcards. Often just one of a kind, or part of a very small local commercial printing operation, photographic cards offer us a rare peek behind the glitter and sparkle of the holiday to see the people of the era. These are the Americans of 100 years ago" Celebrating the 4th, often in a boisterous and flashy fashion long forgotten by the turning pages of history. By the time picture postcards had captured the public's fancy to become not only a collecting fad but part of everyday life, another marvel of the age had also zoomed to the top of a lot of people's "must have" lists. This was Kodak's Brownie box camera - and similar imitations.

The availability of special film and printing stock allowed anyone with the right camera to take photos that could be developed into picture postcards. It quickly became a commonplace tradition to take pictures of the family or town events. The film was then developed by exposing the film to sunlight (or having a local photo shop do it) as penny postcards, which were often mailed to a relative or friend. Simple and fun!

Thus it became a routine activity to take photos of all local celebrations, such as the 4th of July, and to turn them into postcards for either mailing or as keepsakes. Because of the twin mania for both postcards and photography betwen 1904 and 1914, and beyond, we today share a wonderful heritage of black-and-white real photo postcards about people of long ago enjoying the 4th - the parades, picnics, oratories, and other gatherings of the day. Other favorite pictorial mementoes included such scenes as children gathered around a small group of aging civil War veterans at the local Old Soldiers' Home.

By far, the most plentiful portray patriotic parades in large and small cities and towns across early 20th century America. Unfortunately, many are not identified as to location, though collectors try very hard with magnifying glasses to read the store fronts, signs, banners and street names in the scenes. Individual entries in these parades, such as the Uncle Sam impersonator or a flatbed full of schoolchildren, make black-and-white real photo postcards so very interesting.

Unlike most postcards saved and treasured in old fashion postcard albums still found occasionally even today in antique shops, the photographic types from the box camera more than likely ended up in family photo albums. Such postcards were much more personal than the store-bought kind. They tended to be treated as photographs and not postcards, especially if they had a message written on the back or front.

Rural folks living in the earliest decades of the 20th century enjoyed one great benefit from their Brownie camera's photo postcards. They could easily and quickly snap a picture of their little community and in doing so preserve forever the image. Regular view postcards of very small villages were rare, unless a variety or drug store owner in town decided to take a chance and have some printed from his or her own photographs. More than likely, though, the postcards stayed on the store's racks gathering dust for the next 30 years. Such publishing efforts were almost never done in places with small populations.

But thanks to the photographic and postcard manias of the early 1900s, many villages and small towns have a treasure trove of pictures from their distant past, including some showing old-time residents having a happy time on the 4th of July. And so do we collectors!