Books on Old Antique Vintage View Postcards
Postcards that show towns, buildings, mountains, National Parks etc. that are places are considered “views”. Postcards that show things such as animals, holidays, greetings, angels, advertising, Santa Claus etc. are considered “topics”. The third major category is “foreign” postcards which for me would be any place other than the United States. If you live in England, then Atlanta Georgia is a foreign view for you. Books on view postcards in general just do not exist as far as I know however you can find some information in books such as James L Lowe’s “Standard Postcard Catalog”. NOTE: This book has been out of print for many years and is extremely hard to find and expensive when you do find it because it is the “Daddy Rabbit” of postcard books. In that book under “Sets and Series” you can find mention of many series of view postcards such as the Raphael Tuck series on St. Augustine Florida, St. Louis Missouri etc. Also, there is the “Detroit Publishing Company Collector’s Guide” by Lowe and Papell which was done in the 1970s and Nancy Stechschulte’s 1994 book “The Detroit Publishing Company Postcards” have extensive information about the postcards (estimated to exceed 17,000) produced by the company, many of which were view cards. You can also find information in books such as “Baseball Stadium Postcards” by Tom Crabtree, “Nevada Post Card Album” by Robert Greenwood, and the large number of books published by Arcadia Publishing in “The Postcard History Series”. The Arcadia books are done by individual postcard collectors who share their collection and knowledge of specific towns or areas. There may very well be an Arcadia book that will cover the area you are interested in so check out their website at http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/ and the price is less than $22 direct from Arcadia, your local bookstore and on line from places like Amazon.
When shopping for postcards on you favorite town, remember that content is king and availability and condition are close behind. The first card below shows a nice view of the Galesburg Illinois Burlington Railroad Depot but has the big plus of the California Zephyr in the station.
The second card shows the interior of the French Market in New Orleans. While exterior views are common, this scarce interior view with tables built around the columns with ornate mirrors on the columns and stools for the patrons increases the value of this card substantially. Both of these vintage postcards can be found in my US View Postcards along with 10,000 additional postcards on my website Moody’s Postcards.
CATCH POSTCARD FEVER!!! See somewhere new on each old view postcard.
