Big and Small: Postcard History
Friday, August 6, 2010 
What I love about HH is that each submitted photo comes to life as we're filled in on the story of the people and horses depicted therein, and just for a moment, we can imagine ourselves in their shoes (or saddles!). With postcards, though, that story is often a mystery. Take this particularly mysterious gem from my personal collection (confession: amateur Deltiologist here -- for those not in the know, that's a person who collects postcards); each time I look at it, I wish for some correspondence -- some scrap of information, some occasion that will lead me on a wild goose chase through history to the precise moment of this photograph -- little Billie's fourth birthday, for example, when he finally got the pony he was after -- only he'll have to grow into him, since he doubles as a plough horse, see.
But before I get ahead of myself, I'll acknowledge that there is a fair bit of information on this card -- thanks to the U.S. Postal Service, which began mailing postcards in the 1860s. It appears this was mailed over a hundred years ago on the afternoon of Oct. 8, 1908, likely from Spring Green, Wis. (pop. 1,444 at the 2000 census -- you can imagine it was pretty sparse 100 years ago), to Prairie du Sac, Wis. (pop. 3,231 in 2000), where it arrived the following morning, a distance of some 23 miles. It's what Deltiologists would call a 'Divided Back, Real Photo' card; 'Divided Back' because, prior to 1907, all postcard correspondence had to be written on the front, leaving the back for the address only, and 'Real Photo' because this card is created from an image, not a drawing. In fact, this card appears to be a one-off, likely taken with some of Kodak's early postcard film, which was introduced in 1903.
As to why it was sent without any correspondence, I'm not sure. Perhaps it was sent between relatives, requiring no explanation. Maybe a mother was fascinated with her brand new camera and couldn't resist sending the results to her nearest acquaintance. Postcards, then as now, were a fad, so maybe it was sent just to be sent. Or, just maybe, the sender knew it would one day be featured on some future technological thing called a blog, and wanted to inspire us to stretch our imaginations. Whatever the case, Mrs. R. S. Coppe (R. Scoppe?) of Prairie du Sac received a beautiful postcard the morning of Oct. 9th, 1908, and I wonder, a hundred years later, what her reaction would be to seeing it here. Just who is that pee-wee perched atop that gentle giant? We may never know, but what we do know is that they were. They were. As for the rest of the story, we just have to imagine.
Have a great weekend, and as always, keep those submissions coming!
Reader Comments (1)
Wow! Nice postcard research. Somebody's Great Great Grandparent perched on that pony.