Friday, July 12, 2013

Rainy Day -- University of Minnesota



Not surprisingly, there aren't very many postcards picturing rainy weather. This is a modern postcard (1990s?), but it is the only rainy one I can think of that I have in my collection. Rainy weather is usually seen in a negative light, especially when it relates to tourism. On this postcard of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, the photographer (© Bob Firth/Firth Photo Bank) has managed to make the rainy day look colorful and sunny. He has also captured activity with the blurry figure in the foreground.

When I decided to post this postcard, I was pretty sure it was the library on the middle of the East Bank campus. I began to have doubts, however, when I read the caption on the back: "UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. Coffman Union on the Minneapolis campus is a center of student activity."  Coffman Union is a center of activity, but this is NOT Coffman Union! It is actually Walter Library, which I confirmed by looking at my postcards of the Union and photos on the internet.

Here is a postcard of the real Coffman Union (ca. 1970s):


An here is a photo of Walter Library (source: Wikipedia):




 Visit Sepia Saturday for more vintage images that may (or may not) picture rain.





12 comments:

  1. I think there are a lot of misidentified postcards like that out there - just waiting to be corrected by you and other Sepians, no doubt.

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  2. The photographer did a good job making a rainy day on campus seem colorful and lively. I love the dots of red in the splashes of yellow. I have a couple postcards of my college campus, but the descriptions are just generic, not building specific.

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  3. Rainy weather doesn't encourage tourism, does it? That really is a colorful rainy day!

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  4. I love that first photo. No matter that they got the building mixed up. The trees are so gorgeous and the colorful umbrellas add so much to the atmosphere.
    Nancy

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  5. We all had problems finding rain this week, but you took us on a fine tour of some grand buildings.

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  6. The photographer is talented. If you didn't mention anything about rain, I'd never have thought it was raining in the photo.

    Hazel

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  7. Gosh my connection was acting up. I was referring to the Coffman Union building (first comment). Now that I see the first shot, ok the ground is wet :)

    Hazel

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  8. I think the point is, if it looks good in the rain, its bound to look even better when the sun shines!

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  9. My impression of student pedestrian traffic from my son's university is that umbrellas will only add to the risk of collisions, as cellphone use already makes walking around campus very hazardous.

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  10. That's an interesting observation about rain shots used for postcards. I have several I bought in Oxford so long ago. Almost all showed rainy days. They were very arty shots, which at the time was just starting to take off in the postcard field.

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  11. A great postcard,
    and I love that you noticed the mistake,
    and proved your point!!
    1-0 for you!!
    :)~
    HUGZ

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  12. A good bit of detective work! Yes!Rain CAN be colourful as the photo proves!

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