Dayton Company 1940 Aquatennial Float

This is a postcard of the 1940 Dayton's Department Store Minneapolis Aquatennial parade float. 1940 was the first year of the Minneapolis Aquatennial, which is still celebrated every July.

This postcard is printed in a greenish tone that isn't reproduced accurately on my computer. The back is labeled "OFFICIAL AQUATENNIAL VIEWS • GILE PRESS, MINNEAPOLIS."  This suggests that Gile Press may have published other postcards of Aquatennial views, but this is the only one I have seen.

I was able to identify the year of the float on my postcard when I found a black and white photo online of the same float.

1940 Dayton Company Float

source

I also saw images of Dayton's 1941 Showboat float that looked similar, but not the same.

1941 Dayton Company Float

 source

Here is a historic video of the Aquatennial parade, dated 1941.

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Beautiful Aquatennial Parade

This postcard doesn't identify the year of the float in the description on the back. through the internet, I was able to discover that it is the 1957 Dayton's department store prize winning float. If you look closely, you can see the Dayton's name on the front of the float near the bottom right of the postcard.

Dayton's was the leading department store in Minneapolis for many years. The Dayton's building is still in downtown Minneapolis, and it is still a department store. But now it is a Macy's and the only department store in downtown Minneapolis. I'm not sure it should even be called a department store, because it is missing many of the "departments" formerly found in department stores.

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NYWF: Frank Buck's Wild Animal Show

FRANK BUCK

"BRING 'EM BACK ALIVE"

PERSONALLY PRESENTS AT THE 

NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR THE GREATEST

WILD ANIMAL SHOW EVER PRODUCED

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.

Patriotic Thanksgiving Greetings

These two postcards are part of a patriotic Thanksgiving series 239, copyright 1908 P.Sander, N.Y. I especially like the design on the first card with Miss Columbia and Uncle Sam, though both scenes are really quite ridiculous and pure fantasy by an artist who doesn't seem to know what to include on a Thanksgiving table.

Photo Greetings from the 1950s

This is a real photo greetings postcard from 1952. It is quite unusual because private photo greetings postcards were rarely used at that time. Photo greeting cards were common, but they normally were the kind made to be sent in an envelope and had a photo printed on a white background with standard holiday greetings printed in the white space (see below for an example from flickr.)

My postcard was mailed in December 1952, just a few weeks after the baby was born. It served both as Holiday Greetings and a Birth Announcement. The back has a handwritten message giving all the family's names and the baby's birth date. The first and last names are common, but the unusual middle name of the baby enabled me to find all three children's names listed together in an online obituary for the father.

Below is an example from flickr of the common type of photo greeting cards.

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GGIE: Levi Strauss Overalls

A 100% mechanical rodeo. It talks. Its figures are all hand-carved likenesses of famous rodeo people. and they're all dressed in authentic Western togs . . . miniature replicas of garments made in California since 1853 by Levi Strauss & company. Don't miss it . . . the hit of the Golden Gate International Exposition . . . located in Vacationland.

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: Pennsylvania Turnpike

Throughout the entire length of the Turnpike gasoline service stations and restaurants are located on both sides of the roadway at staggered points. The stations provided by the Standard Oil Co. of Penna. are unique and de luxe. They are built along early Pennsylvania architectural lines. The adjoining attractive restaurants are operated by the famous Howard Johnson.

American Painting -- William M. Harnett

 

The ninth stamp in the annually issued American Painting Series was placed on sale at Boston, Massachusetts, on December 3, 1969. The stamp depicted the painting "Old Models" by William M. Harnett which is held in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. This painting is painted in the trompe l'oeil style. Trompe-l'œil (French for "deceive the eye") is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions.

"Old Models" features typical subject matter painted by Harnett. He owned a collection of musical instruments and often used them as props. This painting was painted shortly before Harnett died in 1892 and  is considered one of his best compositions.

The violin was also depicted in Harnett's 1886 painting, "The Old Violin," featured in the video below. (Note: that painting also includes a stamped envelope. Video best viewed in full screen mode.)

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

An All-embracing Hug

I was attracted to this postcard by the the unusual pose, and how the subjects all looked like they were having fun hugging each other and posing for the camera. There is no information on the back, so I have no idea about the who or where. I think that they probably were all members of the same family. The two girls on the left look a lot like each other and the woman (mother?) behind them.

It looks like the subjects gave a good deal of thought about where to place their arms and hands, which resulted in their being linked forever in this photo.

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New York World's Fair: Naranjilla Products

Compliments of 

THE NARANJILLA PRODUCTS CO.

Ecuadorian Pavilion, World's Fair, N. Y.

Naranjilla Fruit Juice is a natural fruit juice extracted from Naranjilla, a fruit which grows at an altitude of 6000 feet in the tropical Andes and under the equatorial sun.

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: Greetings from Long Island

BEAUTIFUL LONG ISLAND

Scenic roads, winding lanes, picturesque harbors, and beautiful beaches, make Long Island truly "Naturee's Playground." Surrounded by water and with 120 miles of frontage on the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island's shore line is practically one continuous bathing beach.

Henry Hudson, English captain of the Dutch ship, "Half Moon," made history when he landed on Long Island in 1609. The first deeds for Long Island land were bought from the Indians in 1636.

Wild Berries Stamps

This postcard shows the Wild Berries stamps issued by Sweden in a booklet on September 8, 1977. The motifs show blackberries, cowberries, cloudberries, bilberries, and strawberries.

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

Fishy Tales

These colorful fishing comic postcards are from the 1940s. This type of postcard was popular with those who vacationed where fishing was available. Fishermen are notorious for exaggerating and lying about the size of the fish they catch. The first two postcards have official-looking forms aimed at proving they are not just fibbing and telling tales.

 

The next postcard gives new meaning to the words "the fish are biting."

Hunters sit in trees, but fishermen??

Now – he is wondering whether you will really believe him . . .

The last postcard was mailed from Duluth, Minnesota in 1944 with the following message on the back:

Hello all —
Got to Duluth & just finished our supper. We are down by the dock where they are loading iron ore. It is beautiful here & so cool. We are going to get a cabin to sleep in. I am writing this on the auto hood.
So long -------

 I think these fish exaggeration postcards are very amusing, and I have collected many of them. The video below is one I made with some of my fishy cards. 

My only actual experience with fishing was at a resort where my family vacationed for many years in the 1950s. We used to save some bread from the dinner table to use as bait. We rolled little doughy balls with the bread and went fishing from the dock. They had weekly fishing contests for the kids and awarded prizes for the longest (not heaviest) fish. I still have the certificate that I won one year. Here's proof that I actually caught something.

.

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GGIE: Utah Woolen Mills

The Original

UTAH WOOLEN MILLS

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

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.

Maps: More Minnesota Shape Postcards

See more Minnesota shape postcards here.

Stamp Collecting Stamps

Philatelic Memorabilia.
Members of the American Philatelic Association are shown on the maximum card at their annual convention in 1898. 

Boy Examining Stamp Collection.
The Post Office Department's Philatelic Truck is shown on the maximum card. The truck carried a complete collection of U.S. stamps for youngsters to view and toured the country from 1939 to 1941 to stimulate interest in stamp collecting. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent along a message to "The Junior Philatelists of the United States,' which said: "I commend stamp collecting to you because I started a collection when I was about ten years old and have kept it up ever since. In addition to the fun of it, it has kept up my interest in history and geography, past and present. I really believe that collecting stamps makes on a better citizen."

Under Magnifying Glass
The 1938 U.S. postage stamp commemorating the 300th anniversary of the landing of the first Swedish and Finnish settlers in America in what is now Delaware was based on a painting by Stanley M. Arthurs, which now hangs at the University of Delaware.

1986 Presidents Miniature SheetPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt was the nation's most famous stamp collector during his years in office. The maximum card shows him working with his stamp collection in the library of his home at Hyde Park, New York, in 1936.

The U.S Postal Service issued a Stamp Collecting commemorative booklet on January 23, 1986, in State College, Pennsylvania. This was its first commemorative stamp booklet. The stamps contained in this booklet are shown on the four USPS issued maximum cards above. The Swedish postal administration also issued a similar stamp booklet on the same day. The Swedish stamps are shown on the four Swedish maximum cards below.

Misprint 20/TRETIO (THIRTY)

The Engraver

The Album Sheet
Te design of this stamp is almost identical to the U.S. Under Magnifying Glass stamp.

The Stamp Collector

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