The First Ladies at the Smithsonian

Dress of Martha Washington
Wife of President George Washington (1789-1797)

Dress of Sarah Childress Polk
Wife of President James Polk (1845-1849)

 

Dress of Mary Todd Lincoln

Wife of President Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)

The postcards above show the dresses of three First Ladies of the United States at the Smithsonian Institution  in Washington D.C, a group of museums and research centers administered by the Government of the United States.  It was originally organized as the "United States National Museum." These postcards were published in the 1930s. 

The First Lady of the United States is the White House hostess and is normally the wife of the President of the United States. The First Lady is not paid a salary and has no official duties. However, she attends many official ceremonies and functions of state either along with or in place of the president. (source: Wikipedia)

The First Ladies Exhibit at the Smithsonian explores the unofficial but important position of first lady and the ways that different women have shaped the role to make their own contributions to the presidential administrations and the nation. The first ladies exhibit has long been one of the most popular attractions at the Smithsonian Institution. It includes many of the gowns worn by First Ladies. Over the years the exhibit has been expanded and updated.

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Service with Charm!

The Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel

The Hallmark of Hospitality

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

*   Bacchante Cocktail Lounge   *

Your favorite drink served in an 

atmosphere of distinctive charm.

 
Smorgasbord Sundays (SS) 
BARS & RESTAURANTS

Irish Flowers For St. Patrick's Day

These three postcards are part of  ST. PATRICK SERIES NO. 5 by Nash.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Valentine Dream

OH, BE MY VALENTINE

A Woman and Her Dog

This real photo postcard of a woman and her dog has no information on the back. The woman must have loved her dog a lot to have this type of photo and postcard made. The dog looks like a Staffordshire Terrier, and he seems very well-behaved, sitting still and looking at the camera. (I don't know what is on the blurry right side of the photo, but it looks like a ghost dog to me!)

I always am intrigued, when looking at photos of people and their dogs, by how much people and their dogs resemble each other. Looking at the two faces here, I see similarities in the way the eyes look and how the shape of the dog's ears resembles the shape of the woman's hairstyle.

It seems like people tend to choose dogs that look like themselves in some way. There have been studies done on which features are most significant in matching photos of people and their dogs. A Japanese study quoted by several sources (eg. Vox and Huffington Post) found that the eyes were most significant in matching photos correctly.

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1950s Hairstyles & Beauty

 

This postcard advertising Cold Wave by Helene Curtis was sent out by a hair stylist in 1951.  Cold waves are a type of permanent wave invented in 1938 that does not use machines or heat (source: Wikipedia).

I have never had any personal experience with permanents, and I never liked the look of most permanents that I was aware of. Of course, if the permanents looked as nice as the ones in ads, I probably wouldn't even be aware that it was a permanent.

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Map: Come to Florida

Amelia Earhart's Vega Aircraft

© 1997 USPS & Lockheed Martin Corp

This is an oversize (5" X 7") postcard with a picture of a stamp from the Classic American Aircraft stamp issue. A sheet of 20 different aircraft stamps was issued on July 19, 1997. The complete sheet is shown here.

The aircraft on this stamp is Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega. This is the plane that Earhart used in 1932 to solo non-stop across the Atlantic (from Newfoundland, Canada to Londonderry, Northern Ireland) and the U.S. (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey ) – both firsts for a woman. The Vega was a favorite of pilots seeking to set speed and distance records. Earhart's Vega is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. You can see a photo of the display and read more about the plane and Amelia Earhart here.

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

Harmony House Restaurant

This postcard is a photo of a room with lots of pennants and tables. Fortunately the information written on the back tells what it is. It is "Harmony House Restaurant owned by Inez Thompson of 'Big Four' quartet."

The Big Four Quartet was the 1953 Sweet Adeline International Quartet Champion. The quartet was based in Chillicothe, Illinois and was made up of Inez "Junior" Thompson, Lucille (Miller) Bradley, Sarah LeMaster, Bertha Bradley and the replacement member Mary Waters. Sweet Adelines International is "a worldwide organization of women committed to advancing the musical art form of barbershop harmony through education, competition, and performance." Barbershop music is described on Wikipedia as follows:

Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era (1930s–present), is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music, characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture. Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completes the chord, usually below the lead.

Member Mary Waters wrote a book about the Big Four Quartette in 2000: 800 Pounds of Harmony: The Big Four Quartette. There is a CD recording of the group, Big Four Quartette, that can be ordered online. The CD is a remastered album the group recorded in 1958, plus several cuts from their live shows.

In the Harmony House restaurant photo, there are about 25 pennants on the wall, arranged around a map of the U.S. with pins placed at various locations. Both the pennants and pins probably represent places where the group performed. The quartet also performed on radio and several popular TV shows. On the far wall there is a portrait of group hanging behind some trophies. Here is an enlargement of the portrait:

I didn't find a recording of the Big Four online, but there are some recordings of recent Sweet Adelines champions. The video below is a recording of the 2014 champions, the Lovenotes.

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Edna St. Vincent Millay Stamp

A commemorative stamp honoring Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), a famous American poet, was issued July 10, 1981.

This oversize (5" X 7") postcard was issued by USPS © 2000. I think it is part of a set of Great American Writers postcards, but this is the only card like this that I have.

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

Backyard Fences

This is an advertising card from the early 1960s that is the same size and material as a postcard. Both the front and back are covered by advertising for fences manufactured by Panel Weave, Inc. of Linnton, Oregon.

Family history buffs will be interested to know that the only place that I found information about the Panel Weave company was on a genealogy page written by the son of the company's founder. The Panel Weave factory had a big machine to score the panels, then bend them and insert cross pieces. The company only lasted a few years in the early 1960s, but this style of fence is still available elsewhere. You can even make your own, following the instructions for Making A Basket-Weave Fence on the Home Depot website.

When I was a young child, my family lived in Chicago where there were houses and apartments close together. Our backyard was small and had a fence separating our yard from the neighbor's. This photo is me in front of our fence there in the late 1940s.

 

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Warm Fireside Greetings

 

This writing reminder postcard is part of a fireside series by an unidentified publisher: "No. 621--Fireside--11 Des."

I get a nice warm feeling just looking at this picture. It sure would be nice to have a cozy fireside corner like this on a cold day like today. Luckily I have an electric heater to help me stay warm when the heating system can't quite keep the temperature warm enough for me.

January 1914 Calendar

This postcard advertises a folding couch bed that you could have bought for your home 100 years ago. It is fun looking back and seeing what was once new, and is now "antique." The advertiser was John A. Roberts & Co., "Uticas's Greatest Store."

The back of this postcard is undivided, with a very attractive border design. Although divided back postcards had been allowed since 1907, there would have been no need for a message area on the back of this card.

Aprons & Apple Butter

The subject of my postcard is "Cooking Apple Butter in Pennsylvania." I bought this card mainly because of the aprons. The postcard was published in 1955. The back has the following description:

In Pennsylvania, the cooking of apple butter is done in large fireplaces, either oudoors or in "summer houses". The women are expert in the combining of snitzed apples, spices, and cider to produce the tasty, dark applebutter eaten on bread or mixed with "smearkase".

Snitzed apples are sliced apples. Smearkase is the Pennsylvania Dutch name for cottage cheese.

The first video shows an apple butter being made the old fashioned way outdoors over a fire in a large copper kettle.

The second video is about vintage aprons. I have several vintage aprons that I have bought in thrift stores. I love the look of old aprons, though I never actually wear them. A few years ago, I even bought a pattern for sewing an apron similar to the style shown on the postcard. I was thinking of making some aprons for Christmas presents, but changed my mind. I doubt that I will ever get around to using that pattern.

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Pinching & Police & Women

Like this postcard of a woman dressed in a sexy police outfit, most of the postcards with a police theme fall in the comic category. Also like this postcard, many comic postcards depend for their humor on a caption with a pun or double meaning. Pinch is a word with many meanings. Here the humor comes mainly from two of those meanings. The most common meaning of pinch is "to squeeze between the thumb and a finger," which gives this image a risque interpretation. Pinch is also slang meaning "an arrest by a law enforcement officer." Naughty can mean simply disobedient or mischievous, but it can also imply something indecent or irmmoral.

The picture on the postcard is not as far-fetched as it first appears. The postcard was published about the same time that women suffragists were demonstrating for equal voting rights. The picture below is from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. It was published in 1909, and its title is "Policewomen - the woman "Cop" (a dream). Suffragette posed to illus. woman police concept - Cincinnati."

Another photo from the Library of Congress shows the "Arrest of Suffragette, London Oct. 1913." Not only is the policeman arresting or pinching the woman, but she is displaying another meaning of pinch with her pinched face.

There actually were a few women police in the United States early in the twentieth century, but they were mostly limited to working with women and children. The first police woman may have been Marie Owens who was transferred to the Chicago Police Department in 1891 after working with the city health department as one of five female factory inspectors who enforced child-labor and compulsory education laws. Alice Stebbin Wells was a social worker who became a Los Angeles policewoman in 1910. Lola Baldwin of Portland, Oregon has also been called the "First U.S. Policewoman." She became a paid policewoman in 1908 and oversaw the Women's Protective Division.

The next picture is also from the Library of Congress. It is dated 1918 and titled  "Police Women - Capt. Edyth Totten and women police reserve. New York City."

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For Kittens Only

Here are two postcards of the same model holding a kitten. The poses are quite similar, but seem to express different feelings. I think the one on the left looks like the lady is holding the kitten up as if she is showing him off. The one on the right looks more like the lady is wary or shy (and maybe a little seductive) and is holding the kitten in a protective embrace.

Both of these cards have the EAS (E. A. Schwerdtfeger & Co. of London) trademark and series number in the bottom left corner on the picture side. The card on the left is numbered 3154/3, and the one on the right is numbered 3153/6. The part of the number before the "/" is the series number and the part after the "/" is the card number in the series (this type of series usually had 6 cards with the same or similar subject).

Notice that these two postcards have been printed differently. The one on the left is glossy, contrasty, and has words in English. The one on the right is matte, softer, tinted, and wordless.

The backs of the postcards (shown below) are also different. The first one is the the kind of card I usually see. There is an EAS trademark, and all the words are in English (although the card is printed in Germany). It was mailed in the United States in 1912. The second one has no words on the back, a different trademark in the stamp box, and was probably intended for use in non-English-speaking countries. When I examined the EAS postcards shown on eBay, I found that the used cards with the second type of back were mailed with stamps from various European countries.

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International Women's Day & Hen Night

Above is a Russian postcard for International Women's Day which is today, March 8. This postcard is dated 1970. I like the design of the Russian women and foliage arranged in a figure "8."

By coincidence I received the card below today from a Russian member of Postcrossing. Although different in style, I think this card is similar in spirit to the Women's Day card. This one is promoting the Holidays in Russia exhibit at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. The picture is a detail from a painting by Aleksei Korzukhin called "Hen Night" or "Hen Party" (1889) Hen night is the female equivalent of stag night. Aleksei Korzukhin (1835–1894) was a Russian realist painter. The full painting is shown on the museum exhibit page.

Leap Year Postcards

Leap Year usually occurs every four years. An extra day, February 29, is added to the calendar during Leap Years to correct for the fact that a year is not exactly 365 days.Traditionally Leap Year was a time when women were allowed to propose marriage to men instead of waiting for men too propose to them.

Most Leap Year postcards were published during the years of the early twentieth century postcard craze for the leap years of 1904, 1908, and 1912. Most of these postcards were comical in nature. The postcard above, from 1904, is the only Leap Year card in my collection. This postcard was signed by Arthur Gill and published by Tuck.

More information and examples of Leap Year postcards:

Vintage Leap Year Postcards

“Get a Hustle On—It’s Leap Year”

Donald McGill postcards that warned men about women proposing

New Fall Hats - 1930s Style

This advertisement for fall hats from a "Big Hat Store" in downtown Minneapolis was printed on a government postal card and mailed September 14, 1936.

Many of the women's hats of the 1930s could be described as pert or perky and were worn at a jaunty angle. The style shown on the card seems typical of hats of the 1930s, fitting relatively close to the head and tilted to the side so that one eye and one ear were concealed.

Women needed hats in the 1930s in order to be considered properly dressed. Buying a new hat would have lifted their spirits in the midst of the depression. However, the $1.88 price that seems cheap today would have been equivalent to nearly $30 in 2011 dollars (DollarTimes Inflation Calculator).

A Study From Nature

The title on this postcard is "A Study From Nature, Twin Cities, Minn.," but it is impossible to tell where the scene really is. The card has a 1911 Minneapolis postmark.

I really can identify with this postcard because I have painted (or tried to paint) similar scenes. My attempts at plein air painting have been awful. I do have an acrylic painting of a similar scene, based on one of my fall photos, that turned out fairly well. This scene reminds of the types of scenes Impressionists painted, and I may try to use the postcard as a basis for a painting of my own.