New York World's Fair: Mayflower Donuts

CELEBRATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1939-40 WORLD'S FAIRS
Look for more World's Fair Postcards on the Postcardy Blog on Fridays.
To view past World's Fair posts, click here or on the exposition label.

Map: San Jose Area

 

Letter Carriers Stamp

 

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

GGIE: Pacific Gas and Electric Company Exhibit

IN A VAST, animated diorama covering the end wall of the Electricity and Communications Building, three phases of Calivornia's development are portrayed. On the left is a covered-wagon train of '49, encamped for the night in a Sierra pass. On the right, is a dock scene is a dock scene in early-day San Francisco — a sailing ship rocking with the tide, a stage coach awaiting its passengers. In the center panel is the artist's conception of the City of the Future. Fifty animated figures give the diorama life and reality. Changing light effects playing upon the richly colored  backgrounds of mountain and bay scenery add beauty and charm. to the picture. Beneath, to floor level, is a series of other exhibits presenting the advantages of electric utility service and the extant of  the companies vision.

 
CELEBRATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1939-40 WORLD'S FAIRS
Look for more World's Fair Postcards on the Postcardy Blog on Fridays.
To view past World's Fair posts, click here or on the exposition label.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

 

The maple leaf is an official symbol of Canada, but the Mounties (members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP) are more uniquely and unofficially symbolic of Canada. A marketing firm that did a study of corporate logo and product recognition found that the RCMP officer, with the red serge dress uniform jacket and brown Stetson hat, was the second most recognizable symbol in the world after Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse (source:: RCMP Uniforms video).  

The colorful picturesque uniforms of the Mounties make them popular subjects for postcards. My postcard collection has RCMP postcards that I have categorized under several topics. The first postcard below is an ad from the Alberta Government Travel Bureau promoting tourism. This is a postcard that my father found somewhere some time around the late 1950s.

THE SCARLET TUNIC OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE
flashes a welcome to National Park visitors in Alberta. The R.C.M.P. gladly assist tourists who need help.

Judging by the cars in the photo, the next postcard is from about the same time period. This card is part of my collection of roadside sign postcards, along with several other postcards of this famous sign post.

DAWSON CREEK, B.C., Canada
Here at historic Dawson Creek is the official Mile '0" of the famous Alaska Highway which stretches through 1523 scenic miles to Fairbanks, Alaska.

The next two postcards are ones I file under "horses."  They show officers and horses that perform the RCMP Musical Ride that consists of the execution of a variety of intricate figures and cavalry drills choreographed to music.

This officer is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride which is performed annually at various events in Canada.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(Photo Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Railway)

The multiview postcard below is a bit newer. I have this with a group of Canadian postcards that I got when I visited the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1976. Many of the pictures seem to be of the Musical Ride, including one at center bottom that has the same photo that was used on one of the single view cards above.

"A LEGENDARY FORCE"
Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, crearted the Mounted Rifles on May 23, 1873 to keep law in the Canadian West. They later became known as the North West Mounted Police, and then the legendary Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

My last image is from Wikipedia and is not a postcard. It shows a member of the RCMP posing in front of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.for snapshooting tourists in 1949. I am including it both because I like the image and because it is such a contrast to yesterday's (October 22, 2014) shooting attack at Canada's Parliament. The following video shows the Police press conference regarding that attack.

 

Visit Sepia Saturday

For More Vintage Images

Map: The Hotel Reeves & Muskingum Lake District

THE HOTEL REEVES

New Philadelphia, Ohio

Food and Beverages

Site of Historic Schoenbrunn Village

Heart of Muskingum Lake District

The Legend of Sleepy Holllow

This is a Colorano Silk Maximum Card with the "Legend of  Sleepy Hollow" stamp that was issued on October 10, 1974. The stamp features a scene from Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in which the infamous Headless Horseman pursues Ichabod Crane. The story was first published in 1820. Wikipedia has a summary here.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

Mexican Pottery

I like postcards showing crafts and markets, and the postcard above fits both those categories. It shows the market at Tlacolula, Oaxaca, Mexico, described as "One of Mexico's most famous pottery markets."

The next postcard shows Doña Rosa (1900-1980) in Oaxaca, Mexico. She was famous for inventing a technique to make the local pottery type, barro negro, black and shiny after firing. You can watch her at work in a video here.

The next postcard is one of my favorites because it includes a woman photographing the scene with what appears to be a 1950s Brownie movie camera, similar to the one in the vintage Kodak commercial video at the end of this post. The location is somewhere south of the Rio Grande border between Texas and Mexico.

 

My last postcard shows a piñata shop, apparently just south of the border between Arizona and Mexico. Piñatas are decorated containers often made of papier-mâché, pottery, or cloth. They are filled with small toys or candy, or both, and then broken as part of a ceremony or celebration. I am including it to help us celebrate Sepia Saturday’s 250th Edition with a party!

Just think of all the things you could record with a Kodak movie camera--and it's such a bargain!

New York World's Fair: Children's World

One of the interesting sections of Children's World is the Country Fair, where there is a Dog Show which has a continuous performance of trained dogs, a Pet Show which has a bird circus, and a thrilling Irish jaunting cart ride. It is here that the boys and girls may ride on Mechanical Jumbo.

CELEBRATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1939-40 WORLD'S FAIRS
Look for more World's Fair Postcards on the Postcardy Blog on Fridays.
To view past World's Fair posts, click here or on the exposition label.

Map: Fred Harvey Hotels Mileage Chart

From the wheat fields of Kansas to the orange groves of California, the transcontinental highways which follow the popular "Santa Fe Route" traverse a region rich in scenic interest . . . New Mexico with its mesas and pueblos, its ancient cliff-dwellings and old Spanish missions; Arizona with its Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest and its colorful Navajo and Hopi Indian Country . . . Along the way Fred Harvey Hotels provide convenient over-night stops and ideal headquarters for interesting journeys "off the beaten path."

Belarus WWF Stamps

 

This postcard shows four series of four World Wildlife Fund (WWF) stamps from Belarus:

• 1995  Beavers
• 2000  European Lynx
• 2005 Black Storks
• 2010 Dragonflies 

The stork stamps in the lower right corner are an interesting se-tenant pair. The top stamp in the pair shows the adult stork's body, while the bottom stamp shows the adult stork's legs and the nestlings.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

Wells Fargo Stagecoaches

The postcard above is from the Golden Gate International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1939-40. The stagecoach was loaned by Wells Fargo to the City of San Francisco for its official exhibit. The postcard below is one I bought this week when I visited the Wells Fargo History Museum in Minneapolis. (There are eleven Wells Fargo History Museums, mainly in western U. S. states). This postcard is die-cut and laminated and was sold with a Sharpie pen for writing on the slick surface.

Both of the postcards picture Concord stagecoaches originally made by the Abbot-Downing Company of Concord, New Hampshire.

Source: Sacramento County Historical Society

More images of Wells Fargo historic stagecoaches, from the past and in the present, can be seen in the Wells Fargo Stagecoach Gallery slideshow.


The following images are ones I photographed at the Minneapolis Wells Fargo History Museum.

Visit Sepia Saturday

For More Vintage Images

Map: Mohawk Trail

The Wigwam and Western Summit

Mohawk Trail, Mass.

New York World's Fair: Ballantine Inn

BALLANTINE'S

ALE & BEER

America's Finest Since 1840

CELEBRATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1939-40 WORLD'S FAIRS
Look for more World's Fair Postcards on the Postcardy Blog on Fridays.
To view past World's Fair posts, click here or on the exposition label.

The 1951 Red Cross Fund

This postcard promoted the 1951 American National Red Cross Fund. Judging by the printing on the back, it seems to have been distributed to military personnel. The image is a sepia copy of an illustration by Norman Rockwell.

The United States and many other countries were involved in the Korean War in 1951. This was a war between North and South Korea, in which a United Nations force led by the United States of America fought for the South, and China fought for the North, also assisted by the Soviet Union. The war arose from the division of Korea at the end of World War II and from the global tensions of the Cold War that developed immediately afterwards. (source: Wikipedia)

In the first video below actress Tallulah Bankhead remembers American Red Cross founder Clara Barton on Easter Sunday, March 25th 1951 and reads a letter of thanks sent to the Red Cross by a soldier wounded in the Korean War.

The next video, One Year in Korea (1951), tells the story of  the 1950-51 United Nations fight against North Korean aggression. I found this video interesting, because I didn't really know anything about the Korean War.

Visit Sepia Saturday

For More Vintage Images