“Hitting the road hard and fast, am well but lonely.”
Regards, Sed
(1923, Goshen)
Demand for PCs was spurred by the boom in interstate travel in the early 1900s, when nearly every town in Indiana had a train depot; they were also an affordable communication for “common folk.”
“A postcard may be the only surviving witness to the dirt road that used to be Main Street….”
—Robert Reed, author |
There’s no denying it, the 20th century is history. But for those of us feeling nostalgic this holiday season, a new book published by the IU Press captures all the charm of yesteryear in the Hoosier state. Greetings from Indiana—Vintage Hoosier Postcards is filled with nearly 300 color images depicting main streets, factories, courthouses, covered bridges, schools, tourist attractions and oddities galore.
“The ‘golden age’ of postcards was between 1907 and 1915; in fact, postcard collecting was a national craze,” noted author Robert Reed. “Professional photographers traveled the country to provide printing firms with the steady supply of images they needed. We have these largely anonymous photographers to thank for documenting thousands of views of Indiana in hundreds of locations. Without their efforts, many of those views would have been lost forever.”
Today, postcard collecting is again a hot pursuit, thanks to E-bay and the proliferation of antique malls. Regional postcard collector clubs provide opportunities for members to swap and sell cards. But you don’t need to be a collector to experience the charm of these old-fashioned missives. Reed’s new book gathers the best of Indiana postcard collecting from A to Z—from a humorous card from Alexandria (postmarked 1913) to greetings from Zionsville (postmarked 1927), along with 88 other towns.
The postcard was well established in Europe before it came to the United States, Reed explained. America’s public demand for postcards was spurred, in part, by the boom in interstate travel in the early 1900s, when nearly every town in Indiana had a train depot. Travelers enjoyed being able to send friends and family postcards depicting the exotic and impressive sights they visited.
Motels, restaurants and other businesses jumped on the postcard band wagon and used the medium to inexpensively advertise their services. Today, postcard sending is essentially relegated to documenting people’s vacation sites.
Born a Hoosier in Franklin and now a resident of Knightstown, Reed began saving old postcards years ago, and most of the images in the book come from his personal collection. “I was drawn to the history they preserved,” he said. “As a primary means of communication for common folk, they were a link to the past not found in history books or courthouse records.”
There is literally a flip side to the fascinating images on the front of the postcards—the handwritten messages on the back, penned by laborers, sales clerks, teachers, traveling salesmen, students and an assortment of relatives. With just enough space for a sentence or two, postcards capture the essence of the writer’s thoughts and feelings of the moment. Consider the message on the back of a card depicting the Jefferson Theatre in Goshen in 1923: “Hitting the road hard and fast, am well but lonely. Not much further to go today but have to make haste, for little time to complete this job. Kind of thinking of paying another flying visit to you. Cheerio. Hope all well, Regards, Sed.
Greetings from Indiana is a veritable time capsule containing bygone places and voices in the Hoosier state in simpler times. Curling up with this book would be an ideal way to banish stress this holiday season.
Other images from Greetings from Indiana—Vintage Hoosier Postcards
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