Since we don't have a holiday for a while, let's dip into the New York Public Library holiday postcard collection with something for all seasons!
Also--this is a two-month overdue birthday post for my sister. Happy birthday!
Many of these are unwritten, or the message on the back is just another "happy birthday" or "many returns", which I haven't reproduced. If you follow the link to the NYPL site you can look at all the backs, too.
From the 1900s-1910s, with one exception.
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| New York Public Library |
Just signed "From Mother."
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
Postmarked 1909 or 1919, hard to tell.
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
Greeting card verse standards were lower back in the day.Postmarked 1916.
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
The days when swastikas were the kind of happy goodwill symbol you'd decorate birthday cards with.
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
"Easter as well as birthday wishes accompany this card." Postmarked but year illegible.
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| New York Public Library |
This one is actually addressed to the New York Public Library Picture Collection. "Dear sir, will you please extend picture [illegible] weeks thank you." [back in the day, the Picture Collection was like a library, you could borrow pics--I assume this is what that refers to]. Postmarked 1947 (though the card itself is almost certainly a couple decades older).
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
"Dear Elsie, read your letter. Don't know if this card is to[sic] late for your birthday or not but I really didn't think about it before. hope you will excuse me this time. With best birthday wishes. I am as ever your friend Golda." Also written in the top left corner of the back: "This card isn't very nice but the best I could do around here."
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
2 comments:
Loved the cards. I pretended all were sent to me for my birthday this week. My favorite is the one with the white bird and white roses. I used to have some cards like these that had been set to my mother in law.
Aw, what a sweet thought! Glad you enjoyed them!
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