Postcard History Series

The American Postcard history series books explores the history of an area through vintage postcards. Go fishing in the Salton Sea, tour the iconic Hollywood Studios during their golden age, and then take one of New York City’s subways back in time. From early Denver to the Grand Canyon National Park, these postcard books send greetings from the past to eager readers with a passion for history. [View all Postcard History Series books]
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Forgotten San Diego
Forgotten San Diego
$24.99
Lost California
Lost California
$24.99
New York City Skyscrapers
New York City Skyscrapers
$24.99
The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty
$24.99
Cover image for Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, isbn: 9781467161589
Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast
$24.99
Manhattan Churches
Manhattan Churches
$24.99
New York's 1939-1940 World's Fair
New York's 1939-1940 World's Fair
$24.99
Dallas Landmarks
Dallas Landmarks
$24.99
Missions of Southern California
Missions of Southern California
$24.99
Williamsport's Millionaires' Row
Williamsport's Millionaires' Row
$24.99
Detroit's Historic Hotels and Restaurants
Detroit's Historic Hotels and Restaurants
$24.99
Chicago Skyscrapers in Vintage Postcards
Chicago Skyscrapers in Vintage Postcards
$24.99
Onset and Point Independence
Onset and Point Independence
$24.99
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
$24.99
Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair:
Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair:
$24.99
New York State Lighthouses
New York State Lighthouses
$24.99
Early Chicago Hotels
Early Chicago Hotels
$24.99
Resorts of Riverside County
Resorts of Riverside County
$24.99

Forgotten San Diego

9781467160261

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Memories are fleeting, and a region's history can easily be forgotten. This book features over 200 unique and interesting historical postcards that vividly capture San Diego County's forgotten past from 1890 to 1990. From bowling alleys to military bases, from giant dirigibles to sleek airplanes, from billionaires to bulldogs--San Diego has changed so fundamentally that much of its charming history has faded from our memories. Forgotten San Diego showcases the unique evolution of San Diego and its neighboring cities, making sure that the triumphs, tragedies, and oddities of this region live on.
Forgotten San Diego

Lost California

9781467160605

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The postcards in this collection reflect a hidden past of California that exists now only on the page. From college gates at Stanford destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and hotels in Catalina, Santa Barbara, and Oakland ravaged by fire to giant redwoods on the coast felled by storms and much of downtown Los Angeles razed in the name of the progress, California's landscape has changed dramatically in the last 125 years. The buildings demolished in San Diego's Balboa Park after the 1915 exposition closed are shown here as is downtown San Francisco before the earthquake and fire of 1906, amusement parks that decorated waterfronts from Long Beach to Santa Monica, and city halls from Anaheim to San Jose.
Lost California

New York City Skyscrapers

9780738572963

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New York City Skyscrapers celebrates the numerous awe-inspiring buildings that have made New York the skyscraper capital of the world. This book traces the history of New York's tallest structures from the late 19th century, when church spires ruled the skyline, through the 20th century, when a succession of amazing buildings soared to new heights. From the Flatiron and Woolworth Buildings to the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, the skyscrapers of New York have long captured the imagination of people around the world.
New York City Skyscrapers

The Statue of Liberty

9781467124553

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The world's most famous sculpture, the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Enlightening the World, rises to a height of 305 feet from the base of her pedestal to the top of the golden flame of her torch. Conceived, designed, and originally built in France, she was unveiled on her new island home in 1886. The postcard trade, still in its infancy, embraced the icon, and Miss Liberty's commanding figure soon appeared on millions of postcards. In this book, one will see the statue from many angles--profiles, long shots, close-ups, aerials, torch views, and more.
The Statue of Liberty

Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast

9781467161589

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Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast explores many of the lighthouses and breakwater, pier, and reef lights in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, and Hawaii. Whether it is Eldred Rock Lighthouse in Alaska or Diamond Head Lighthouse in Hawaii, then as now, people have loved to visit the lights while on holiday and to send postcards back home.

 

Many of these important navigational aids are still in existence and can be visited, thanks to the historical societies and associations that still maintain them. Linda Osborne Cynowa has had a love of lighthouses for many years and has enjoyed visiting and photographing them. She has a background in photography and genealogy, along with postcard collecting and a lifelong love of history. She volunteered at the archives at her local library, researching the historical homes and families in the Romeo and Washington, Michigan, area where she lives. She is the author of Washington Township (2019), Macomb Township (2020), Farming in Northern Macomb County (2021), Lighthouses and Lifesaving on the Great Lakes (2022), and Lighthouse of the North Atlantic Coast (2023), all published by Arcadia Publishing.

Cover image for Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, isbn: 9781467161589

Manhattan Churches

9781467117128

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Manhattan Churches celebrates the wonderful diversity of churches in New York City's oldest borough. The book takes an in-depth look at a wide array of awe-inspiring structures, from Lower Manhattan and Midtown to the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, and Harlem. From Trinity Church and St. Patrick's Cathedral to the Little Church Around the Corner and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the city's churches are a fascinating part of New York's religious, cultural, and architectural history.
Manhattan Churches

New York's 1939-1940 World's Fair

9780738535852

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The 1939-1940 New York World's Fair promised a new age of global communication, nationwide superhighways, and suburban living-and it delivered. Crafted by designers such as Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, and Raymond Loewy, the twelve-hundred-acre fair in Flushing Meadows sold visitors a streamlined world of consumer goods-teardrop cars and smoking robots, electric dishwashers and nylon stockings-manufactured by companies such as Westinghouse, General Motors, and AT&T. In New York's 1939-1940 World's Fair, insightful narrative accompanies dazzling postcards, advertisements, and illustrations of Democracity, Futurama, the Lagoon of Nations, and the famed Trylon and Perisphere, recalling the promise and optimism of a fair that enchanted forty-five million visitors.
New York's 1939-1940 World's Fair

Dallas Landmarks

9780738558523

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Dallas has a reputation as a progressive city--always ready to build something new to replace the old. In the late 19th century, as Dallas became the transportation and commercial center for North Texas, brick and stone edifices supplanted the simple frame structures of the early days. By the 1920s, the city was the financial capital of the region and boasted the tallest building west of the Mississippi. In 1936, Dallas hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition in Fair Park, an ensemble of art deco buildings that is a National Historic Landmark. As business grew, so did the skyline. Today Dallas has a rich collection of historic buildings that chronicle the city's growth and progress.
Dallas Landmarks

Missions of Southern California

9780738547404

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Touring south to north, from San Diego through Santa Barbara County, this unique compendium takes the reader through the Southern California Mission System as portrayed on vintage postcards. The book elaborates on the missions' myriad functions along the coastal El Camino Real through several centuries as not only isolated centers of civilization in the
wilderness and altars of Catholic faith, but also as incursions of empire and politics and the means to convert Native American tribespeople to Christianity. While the Missions San Gabriel and San Juan Capistrano fittingly receive ample coverage herein, this book covers the region's nine major missions as well as outlying chapels, or "asistencias."
Missions of Southern California

Williamsport's Millionaires' Row

9780738537979

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Williamsport was once known as the lumber capital of the world, claiming to have more millionaires per capita living there than anywhere else in the world. Made fashionable by visionary Victorian-era entrepreneur Peter Herdic and his talented personal architect Eber Culver, Williamsport's West Fourth Street became the place to live and visit celebrities and socialites, including Annie Weightman Walker Penfield, the richest woman in the world in her day. These vintage postcards feature scenes varying from the lavish Victorian homes the nouveau riche built from the spoils of the bustling lumbermills and offshoot industries to the resplendent houses of worship where the rich and the poor stood side by side. Williamsport's Millionaires' Row records the pinnacle of Williamsport's wealth and glory days, highlighting the homes of the Millionaires' Row National Register Historic District.
Williamsport's Millionaires' Row

Detroit's Historic Hotels and Restaurants

9780738550800

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Detroit's population grew rapidly after the beginning of the 20th century due to the growth of the automobile and other industries, and the city became a tourist and convention center. Detroit was in its heyday in the 1920s when it was the fourth-largest city in the United States. Some of Detroit's larger hotels were architectural masterpieces, nationally known, and were the center of social
activities. Others were lesser-known second-class hotels now largely forgotten. Detroit restaurants ranged from the self-serve to the elegant. These hotels and restaurants, many of which are gone now, are preserved in nearly 200 vintage postcards, allowing the reader to take a trip down memory lane.
Detroit's Historic Hotels and Restaurants

Chicago Skyscrapers in Vintage Postcards

9780738533421

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The skyscraper has changed the face of urban architecture--and it all started in Chicago. Born out of the ashes of Chicago's Great Fire of 1871, the first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building located at the northeast corner of LaSalle and Adams Streets, was completed in 1885. Designed by William Le Baron Jenney, the nine-story building had a metal load-carrying structural frame, the development of which led to steel-frame skeletal construction and the taller skyscrapers that would follow. Much has changed in skyscraper construction since 1885. But Chicago's impressive urban landscape has maintained its important place in architectural history and today boasts the tallest skyscraper in North America, at 110 stories.
Chicago Skyscrapers in Vintage Postcards

Onset and Point Independence

9781467116466

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Inaugurated in 1877 as a camp meeting ground by eastern Massachusetts residents who believed in communication with the dead, Onset quickly emerged as the nation's leading spiritualist summer community. By 1900, however, spiritualism had been overwhelmed by an influx of tourists, and Onset subsequently developed as a secular summer resort noted for its scenic bluffs, recreational pursuits, and beaches. At this same time, neighboring Point Independence found wide appeal among middle-class vacationers interested in swimming, sailing, and relaxation.
Onset and Point Independence

Philadelphia

9780738549101

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Philadelphia: Historic Exteriors and Interiors is a celebration of the city's architectural legacy. Vintage postcards document both the interiors and exteriors of some of Philadelphia's oldest and most well-known structures, including grandiose department stores, elegant restaurants, and the original terminal of the Philadelphia International Airport. From laborers toiling in their overheated factories to the elegance of a Center City ballroom or presidential suite, and from the whacky comic opera stage to the legitimate theater, the postcards featured in this volume allow readers to experience the nostalgia of Philadelphia in years past.
Philadelphia

Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair:

9780738519845

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"You will enter A Century of Progress for the first time perhaps like an explorer-curious and eager-penetrating an amazingly rumored domain in search of treasure."

-Official Guide Book to the Fair, 1933

One century after Chicago's incorporation, the city hosted the 1933 World's Fair, which was so successful it was held over for 1934. Aptly named "A Century of Progress," the fair confirmed Chicago's emergence as a major American city. Like the phoenix from the ashes, Chicago emerged from its devastating fire of 1871 as one of the most architecturally significant and aesthetically inviting cities in the world.

On 424 lakeside acres located on Chicago's near south side, the Fair brought together innovators and inventors from around the world. Chicagoans hosted visitors from all corners of the globe, commemorating human progress, despite the Great Depression that was devastating the nation's economy.

Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair:

New York State Lighthouses

9780738544960

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New York State Lighthouses explores the great lighthouse heritage of New York State. Second only to Michigan in the number of lighthouses it contains, New York boasts a lighthouse legacy that stretches from the Great Lakes to the tip of Long Island. Many of these lighthouses, even some no longer in existence, were photographed for use on early postcards and are assembled for the fi rst time in the pages of this book.
New York State Lighthouses

Early Chicago Hotels

9780738540412

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From their rise in the early 19th century, Chicago's hotels were bustling centers of city life. The Great Fire in October 1871 destroyed all of that. But it also gave the city an opportunity to begin again with a fresh palette of architectural ideas. By the World's Columbian Exposition
of 1893, Chicago had built over 1,400 hotels and lodging houses, establishing it as the nation's prime destination for business, conventions, and tourism. Early Chicago Hotels presents more than 200 postcards, inviting the reader to tour the stunning exterior and dazzling interior designs of Chicago's architects. The city's fi rst-class hotels, resorts, and lesser-known second-class hotels--many of which are long gone--are featured. These early hotels set the stage for the great palace hotels of the 1920s.
Early Chicago Hotels

Resorts of Riverside County

9780738530789

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For all the faults attributed to the San Andreas, its one very soothing aspect has been an enormous spiderweb of cracks spreading throughout the geologic formations of what became Riverside County. These fissures yielded springs and grottos of warm waters to which thankful pioneers and snake-oil salesmen alike attributed curative powers. In the 20th century, vacationers seeking relaxation, together with those afflicted with a myriad of maladies, came to Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Glen Ivy, Murrieta Hot Springs, and a dozen other wide places in the road to bathe in the balmy waters beneath desert breezes.
Resorts of Riverside County