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]
8 products
The Iowa State Fair: In Vintage Postcards
The Iowa State Fair: In Vintage Postcards
$24.99
Waterloo
Waterloo
$24.99
Ottumwa
Ottumwa
$24.99
Des Moines
Des Moines
$24.99
Along Iowa's Historic Highway 20
Along Iowa's Historic Highway 20
$24.99
Iowa City
Iowa City
$24.99
Grinnell in Vintage Postcards
Grinnell in Vintage Postcards
$24.99
Davenport
Davenport
$24.99

The Iowa State Fair: In Vintage Postcards

9780738540375

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Each August, the Iowa State Fairgrounds, home to America's quintessential state fair, becomes 400 acres of sights, sounds, and aromas. More than just a showcase for farm machinery, the fair has one of the world's largest livestock shows, hundreds of competitive events, first-class entertainment, and ever imaginable food-on-a-stick. The first Iowa State Fair, held in 1854 at Fairfield, drew 10,000 visitors, and attendance now tops one million each year. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it has been held at its present location in Des Moines since 1886. In the early 1900s, fairgoers could choose from a large selection of postcards, stick on a penny stamp, and mail them to friends to describe their blue ribbon, an exciting midway ride, or the great entertainment. Over 190 vintage postcards provide glimpses of the fair from the 1890s to the mid-1950s in The Iowa State Fair.
The Iowa State Fair: In Vintage Postcards

Waterloo

9780738583396

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Waterloo started out like many other towns: as a small pioneer village located along the banks of the Cedar River. It must have been a breathtaking sight--a beautiful river lined with red cedar trees, prairie grasses blowing in the breeze, and abundant wildlife. After winning the battle to become the county seat in 1855, Waterloo began to grow into the metropolis it is today. The popular slogan, "Waterloo Way Wins," has proven true over the years, and one can feel a sense of pride while looking at the images in this book.
Waterloo

Ottumwa

9780738550831

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Ottumwa was established in 1843 on the banks of the Des Moines River. The city quickly became a center of retail trade and industry for southeastern Iowa, as well as a railroad hub that shipped products across the country. More than 200 vintage postcard images show the booming industrial and retail city at the beginning of the 20th century and after--from the river to the railroads, from parks and recreation to business and retail, from quiet residential streets to churches and ice-cream parlors--bringing back the bygone days of a still thriving city.
Ottumwa

Des Moines

9780738550886

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The city of Des Moines experienced a rebirth at the beginning of the 20th century. The City Beautiful movement focused on cleaning up the city, starting with a new civic center along the Des Moines River. A progressive wave in city politics organized the Des Moines plan of commission government. Modern streetcars traveled along recently paved roads and newly constructed bridges, while electric lights kept the streets safe at night. The city motto said it all: Des Moines Does Things. This postcard collection showcases the best the city had to offer during that time, as the city changed and prospered, becoming the "City of Certainties," through challenges during both world wars, and beyond into the postwar boom, when Des Moines became the crossroads of the nation.
Des Moines

Along Iowa's Historic Highway 20

9781467112901

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US Highway 20 was designated a federal highway in 1926. For the first half of the 20th century, it was the most important east-west road across northern Iowa, extending from the Mississippi to the Missouri River. The road connected 13 counties, four major metropolitan areas, and many smaller communities along its route. Fortunately, the historic two-lane road remains almost completely intact and can be driven much as travelers did in years gone by. Along Iowa's Historic Highway 20 celebrates such a trip, illustrated by more than 200 antique postcards that show the personality of the road: town and city scenes, rural vistas, rivers, bridges, and historic sites. Not to be forgotten are the tourist courts, hotels, diners, and gas stations that made travel possible.
Along Iowa's Historic Highway 20

Iowa City

9780738584027

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After raucous times on the western frontier during the 1840s and 1850s, Iowa City settled into a relatively sleepy existence while its principal industry, the University of Iowa, was finding its way from obscurity into an important Iowa resource. Its once-too-small-to-succeed university hospital has blossomed into a medical and economic powerhouse. Research in widely varied fields, from space science to microbiology, finds fertile grounds and minds. Big Ten football beckons on fall Saturdays.
Iowa City

Grinnell in Vintage Postcards

9780738532271

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From an abolitionist hotbed to the home of a prestigious liberal arts college, Grinnell, Iowa, is known across the country as a "jewel of the prairie." Originally conceived as a Congregationalist utopia, Grinnell developed a reputation as a highly-educated community with a wealth of incredible architecture. It was also a turn-of-the-century industrial hub, despite a population of less than 5,000, where buggies, early automobiles, and gloves were made.

The historic postcards in this book recall a community on the verge of transition, from a small agriculture-based town on the prairie to a thriving center of commerce and higher education. They provide a remarkable glimpse of the buildings that make up what is now a "Historic Commercial District" on the National Register of Historic Places. Still others are visual reminders of great buildings-both in the community and on the Grinnell College campus-that now exist only in memory.

Grinnell in Vintage Postcards

Davenport

9780738551579

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Native Americans inhabited the gentle sloping bluffs along the Mississippi River on which Davenport now sits. The peoples who lived on the fertile soil of eastern Iowa were forced into selling their land for pennies to white settlers. From the original survey of the town in 1836 throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, progress was steady as steamboats navigated the dangerous rapids of the Mississippi River, and settlers came to battle extreme Midwest winters and plow the unbroken prairie. In 1856, the first bridge to span the river was completed here, heralding the locomotive from the east and becoming of major importance to the movement west. German and other immigrant families came in droves and with them the development of major national industrial centers for agriculture and its implements, lumber and building material, alcohol and tobacco, and numerous other products. Davenport has been a town of unusual and fascinating history.
Davenport