Friday, November 21, 2014

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.





For More Vintage Images

http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2014/11/sepia-saturday-255-22-november-2014.html

13 comments:

  1. What a good idea combining the Christmas greeting with the birth announcement.

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  2. I've found a few of those in flea markets, too -- they're fun to track down, aren't they?

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  3. A more useful birth announcement than a mere newspaper message as it is good to see the baby's older brothers. Regards Anne

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  4. A very sweet card. I was born a month before Xmas 1952, so my parents could have done the same thing, but they didn't. No older brothers in my case.

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  5. I had our Christmas cards all printed out with my husband's, mine, & our son's names when daughter, Suzanne, suddenly decided to make an early appearance & I had to take our cards back to the printer to have her name added. But I sent out birth announcements as well because I'd already drawn out the idea for them. Nice post! My aunt & uncle used to take pictures of my cousins posed in front of their fireplace every year for their Christmas cards.

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  6. A beautiful photo - babies at Christmas are lots of fun!

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  7. Older brother looks very proud. I like when family pets are included in a greeting photo. It always adds a special charm.

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  8. Great card indeed. I ould have loved to use the bellows on the fire.

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  9. I have a couple old Christmas postcards like your second example. One belonged to an aunt and the other was sent to my grandmother from her sister.

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  10. Great postcards! I love the two proud brothers with their new sibling and the two in the second card look like little imps! The cat was a great touch although he doesn't look to thrilled to be in the photo.

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  11. How very interesting - both in terms of the images and also the history of postcards. It is such a shame that individual personalised postcards vanished from the scene, internet postcards are not the same.

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  12. The first is a stunning photo as is the 2nd but bery interesting....I concur with Alan

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  13. That is unusual for the time period. That family had some cash to spend.

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