A Festival of Postcards (7th Ed.) – Light | Links Restored

An online showcase of the best postcards in the blogosphere!Ed. Evelyn Yvonne Theriault

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Welcome to the very de-light-ful 7th edition of A Festival of Postcards which features the work of dozens of delitologists and postcard lovers all blogging about their postcards around the theme – LIGHT. You’ll find plenty of night-time views – artificial and natural – as well as light-hearted cards and … well, read on to find out!

Festival Blogs In Order Of Appearance

Kay B’s Place ~ Postcards From The Dinner Table ~ The Daily Postcard  ~  Shaunna ~ Postcardiness ~ BeNotForgot ~ Viewliner Ltd.  ~ The View From White Pine Lane ~ Early New Zealand Postcards  The Wandering Genealogist  ~  European Film Star  ~  Family Archive   ~ Mountain Genealogists  Shades Of The Departed   ~  Wild Postcards   ~  A Postcard A Day ~ Are You My Cousin? ~ Strangers In A Box ~ Vintage  Toronto ~ Judy’s Postcards  Plus ~ My Big Fat Cajun/Irish… Family ~ Canada Genealogy ~ Ancestors Live Here ~ Flipside ~ Wild Postcards  ~  Southwest Arkie ~ Ancestories ~ Big Mall Rat ~ Life’s Journey ~ Postcardy ~ News From Nowhere ~ This Old Postcard: Curious things that Are Flat ~ Dear Annie ~ What’s Past Is Prologue ~ Dr.Bill Tells Ancestor Stories  ~ Eva + Daniel Sutter ~ Tangled Trees ~ Mikkel’s Hus.

Feature Article

This month I’m featuring one of my own posts so that I can introduce you to Postcard Collector.Org A New Community For Postcard Lovers. This forum looks like it might become another great place for the postcard community to congregate!

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There are four ultimate elements of which are made all structures in the world — fire, air, water, earth. – Empedocles

| KAY B’S PLACE | With The Glow Of The Fireplace, Kay Bauman introduces us to a type of postcard that I didn’t even know existed – the red-tinted real photo postcard. I’ m always amazed at the wide variety of postcards that we learn about in the Festival and what’s so great about Kay’s post is that she also shares her journey of discovery!

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| POSTCARDS FROM THE DINNER TABLE| Karen Resta joins us this time with Cowboys, Speedometers, Airmail Airmail and Beans – a vintage Western cowboy postcard which was part her Cowboy Week. In keeping with her food-themed blog – she makes reference to chuckwagon cuisine and concludes with a little video tribute to to Cowboy Beans from Blazing Saddles.

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| THE DAILY POSTCARD | Christine says she loves “antique postcards because they preserve evidence of everyday life as well as clelebrations and sad events” and her relatively young blog just keep getting better and better as she adds a postcard a day.

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| SHAUNNA’S POSTCROSSING | In her own words, Shaunna “blogs to share the postcards that I have received over the years, through penpals, swaps and of course, postcrossing”. She also specializes in the collection of cards depicting mythological creatures. Her ice-and-fire postcard depits a Qulliq from Canada’s Arctic region.

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| POSTCARDINESS | The second of the classical elements – air – is well represented by this view of a spectacular play of lights on Atlantic City’s Auditorium and Convention Hall. Leo accompanies it with a nice bit of research and he shares his finding that “most if not all – of pre-photochrome night time postcards really show a daytime view that has been altered to make it appear to be a nighttime scene!”. Leo blogs to explore the “-ness of postcards and ephemera”.

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| BENOTFORGOT | Vickie Everhart is well known for her digital artwork and she hasn’t disappointed us yet! For this issue she offers 1936 Texas Centennial which incorporates different types of paper ephemera including a postcard of a fountain (the element of water) at the Texas Centennial Expositon in Dallas. What a lot of history packed into one small collage!

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| VIEWLINER LTD.- A TOUR OF AMERICANA | is represented by Dawn of A New Day which showcases several modern postcards depicting the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair. The featured postcard is Parachute Jump depicting a pretty wild ride that in which passengers were hoisted by steel cables to the top of the tower and the released to simulate the experience of bailing out from a winging plane. Not my idea of fun, but “a chacun son gout!”

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| THE VIEW FROM WHITE PINE LAKE | Here’s another newcomer – Wisconsin blogger Kimberley Adam. She’s showing a postcard of Electric Fountain in Olcott Park, Minnesoata which she bought because she has family and personal connections to the area. Kimberley has a fresh, enthusiastic writing style and you may also enjoy her special Project 52.

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| EARLY NEW ZEALAND POSTCARDS | It’s my great pleasure to introduce you to Jeff Pyle’s blog and cluster of sites containing his massive collection of postcards. His blog links to a wide-variety of cards ranging from the more familiar such as railway, war and commemorative cards to the more unusual (for non-New Zealanders) that depict the traditions and culture of the Maori who were the First Peoples of New Zealand. And in a final note for family historians and genealogists, Jeff says he’s “ always available to help others with information and locations to source materials as I have a large NZ non-fiction library and have considerable experience in researching this plus family histories.”

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| THE WANDERING GENEALOGIST| I thought I’d finish the “four classical elements” sections with a big bang – and it comes to you courtesy of John Gasson. John had me stumped – in which category could I fit his postcard? I finally decided that since lightning (or should I say lighening?) joins earth and sky this was as good a place as any!

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Lights! Cameras! Action!

| EUROPEAN FILM STAR POSTCARDS | I’ve been trying to include this site from Amsterdam blogger Bob for quite awhile now, but it never quite fit into our quadruped/main street/wheel etc. themes! Now I can finally introduce you to to his blog “the stars of the popular European cinema from 1895 till 1970, and to the fans who collected their postcards.” For this Festival you can find his profile of Ralph Lynn “a tweedy, dark-haired comedian who made a stage career out of playing monocled silly ass twits”.

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| FAMILY ARCHIVE | If you were with us for the last Festival, you’ll remember that New York blogger Harry Delf’s family (including an earlier Harry Delf) has roots in American Vaudeville. His blog includes all sorts of emphemera related to that history including his offering this month – The Great White Way – which depicts New York’s theatre district at a “time and the place where the entertainment world all came together”.

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|MOUNTAIN GENEALOGISTS | And here’s another newcomer – professional genealogist Cyndi Beane Henry who hails from Virginia. Her contribution features New York’s Times Square At Night in the mid- 20th century and if you look closely you’ll see a marquee on the left featuring Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator at the Astor while the Loew’s State Vaudeville across the street which features Harry Cooper…? ( Maybe Harry Delf can help out with this one! )One last word, if you’ve got a passion for neon signs then click to enlarge and check out the Planters Peanuts one in the middle – truly spectactular.

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A light heart lives long – William Shakespeare

| SHADES OF THE DEPARTED | footNote Maven has a great contribution – “Better han playing whist” – an early 20th century postcard depciting two “naughty” couples. The card is accompanied by her notes on Whist, the Montana census, wifely problems and Ben Franklin. If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to visit her magazine Shades of the Departed, which is dedicated to “the fascination of old photographs”.

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| WILD POSTCARDS | You can read about Chris in the Downtown section below next to his official entry, but I couldn’t resist adding this light-hearted postcard featuring a pair of lions in the jungle under the light of the moon. Chris has a great sense of humour and you can reach his companion site Girls go Postal!

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| A POSTCARD A DAY | I put UK blogger Sheila’s postcard depicting the Highland Light Infantry in this section not because it’s funny, but rather as a salute to Sheila’s whimsical interpretation of the Light theme. Sheila’s site is well worth bookmarking as she publishes a steady stream of high quality postcards to suit all tastes.

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Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

W.B. Yeats

| ARE YOU MY COUSIN | This month, Lisa Raleigh with the very tender postcard By The Moonlight Lisa is a family historian and genealogist and invites us to follow “my journey through history to discover my ancestors – one cousin at a time”. She’s been blogging for less than a year but has already has a nice little selection of cards and postcards on her family history blog.

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| STRANGERS IN A BOX | is one of two New Zealand blogs in this issue of the Festival. Dawn Scotting has a special project to “… find descendants of the unwanted/unloved vintage photographs I’ve found in my travels around NS & on the internet”. This is her second time participating in the Festival and this time she has a post which is chockful of paper ephemera organized around a Norah Mary Cissie Mills. I’ve actually pulled 2 cards for this Festival. I invite you to view her card Birthday Greetings.

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| VINTAGE TORONTO | Canadian blogger Agatha Barc is a University of Toronto undergrad specializing in vintage views of Toronto and of “Mimico Lunatic Asylum (later Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital), Sunnyside Amusement Park, Parkdale and High Park”. She also has a special interest in improving the lives of people at Toronto’s Asylum by the Lake. Please visit Vintage Toronto and view University college in Moonlight.

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| JUDY’S POSTCARDS PLUS | Many Festival bloggers are regulars but Judy is really quite unique. Why? Well over the life of the Festival Judy is the only blogger who has contributed postcards in every category – vintage and modern postcards and mail art. What she’s sharing with us this time is a whimsical Sun Maid advertising card. Judy’s uses her blog to showcase her interest in ephemera and her talent at handicrafts.

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| POSTCARD COLLECTOR.ORG  | Alec Millard’s Forum for postcard lovers is the subject of the Feature Article above. His entry for this Festival is titled  Halloween Hold To The Light? and shows a witch flying on a broomstick under the light of the moon and starts.

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Love is not consolation. It is light. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

| MY BIG FAT CAJUN, IRISH … Louisiana Blogger Liz Hall and I have something in common – we both descend from the Legers of Acadie – and this is the topic of her wonderful piece of mail art – Legere relatives light up our family tree. As Liz points out the word legere means light in English (as in light weight). Liz blogs out of Louisiana and is part of the genealogy and family history community.

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| CANADA GENEALOGY JANE’S YOUR AUNT | Diane Rogers has something really intruiging for us this time. She’s sharing a Flashlight photograph and if you’d like to know more about the process she’s provided some top notch references on the subject. Diane is a profession genealogist and she’s editor of The British Columbia Genealogist and an active member of many professional societies.

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| ANCESTORS LIVE HERE | Blogger Leslie Ann Ballou is another Festival newcomer. She’s participating with a silly but lovely postcard that she pulled out of a box of her great-grandmother’s belongings. Leslie points out that though she’s “now a Floridian, she’ll always be an Idaho girl”. She’s hooked on genealogy and family history and I imagine that with three children and five grandchildren she’ll have plenty of material for her blog!

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| FLIPSIDE | A sense of humour is a great thing – and no one can deny that Linda Hughes Hiser has one! She was determined to take part in this Festival and so she’s sharing her overexposed (and therefore light!) photo postcard of her paternal grandfather..In case some of you haven’t yet noticed, Linda also has a genealogical website called The Linda Hughes Hiser Family Genealogy Home Page.

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Downtown … ..The lights are much brighter there, You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares – Chrissie Hynde

| WILD POSTCARDS If you haven’t visited Wild Postcards yet, then you’re in for a treat because Chris showcases hundreds of postcards from his family and personal collections, as well as other paper collectibles such as Arcade and QSL cards. For this Festival he’s showing us Tripoli by Night which depicts a fortress that dates from the 16th century. I believe it’s the second oldest structure pictured on a Festival postcard (the pyramids were the oldest).

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| SOUTHWEST ARKIE Arkansas geneablogger Terri is participating for the first time with a postcard of Tulsa, Oklahoma which comes from her local genealogical society’s Dellinger/Holman collection. Terri explains that she does a lot of volunteer work – on and off line – for her genealogical society, Find-A-Grave, Random Acts of Gen Kindness and others. As a result a lot of her “own personal family research has been pushed to the back burner so many times that I can no longer recite names and dates and this makes me sad” Her Southwest Arkie blog is her “attempt to slow down for a second and start “thinking” through my research again, and hopefully break down a few of those walls”.

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| ANCESTORIES Miriam Robbins Midkiff joins us with a Minneapolis view of Nicollett Avenue at Night and mentions that she’s “sure this view of the big city was enticing to young people of the surrounding rural areas.” Geneabloggers know Midkiff for her monthly activity “Scanfest” which “is a great time to “meet” other genealogists, ask questions about scanning and preservation, and get the kick in the pants we all need on starting those massive scanning projects that just seem too overwhelming to begin”.

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| BIG MALL RAT If you’re into American retro/vintage and 20th century retail architecture, then you must drop by BigMallrat’s – “mall appreciation blog with historical information and current happenings at shopping malls in Northern California and Reno.” You’ll find plenty of historical tidbits and memorabilia as well as vintage postcards such as this one of the Sunvalley Mall Center court in Concord, California. You might also want to check out his great blogroll.

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From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

| LIFE’S JOURNEY | Bob Kramp of North Carolina asks the question “Did my immigrant ancestors see the real thing?” and showcases the well known American landmark – the Statue of Liberty. Bob discusses the history of the Statue, and shows how you can track the statue’s aging through its changing colour on postcards. The official title of the statue – “Liberty enLIGHTening the World” – makes it perfect for our Festival of Light.

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| POSTCARDY | Lynne has never missed a festival and this time she’s sharing an oversized postcard in a post titled the Empire State Building Freedom Lights. She includes a beautiful poem by Kantor. Here’s an excerpt: “Sing you a song, Proud Lights?, We sing silently. We chant a Mass and spiritual Doxology and Kol Nidre battle humn and ballad. We tell of village and of jet, of wheat and cotton, turbine, oil and goldenrod, the wildest mountains and the cities’ roar.” Very meaningful and moving words.

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| NEWS FROM NOWHERE | Alan Burnett is back this month with an early 20th century postcard “Lead, kindly light”. Alan has an interesting discussion about the choice of topics by postcard manufacturers of that period and musings about the poem itself. In case you’ve missed it, Alan (together with Kat Mortensen) recently founded Sepia Saturday which “provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind (they don’t have to be sepia) become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images.”. You can reach it through Alan’s site or a link in the right sidebar.

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| THIS OLD POSTCARD: CURIOUS THINGS THAT ARE FLAT | Cleveland delitologist Susan E joins us this month with The Eucharistic Supper. You won’t want to miss her excellent analysis, but don’t forget also to click on Read Me, for an informative little essay on the various artistic interpretations of the Eucharist, as well as a discussion of the halo as religious iconography.

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| DEAR ANNIE Here’s another entry with halos. It’s Annie from Anastasia Hiebel and was submitted by Lorlee Bartos. This charming blog is dedicated to Lorlee’s great-aunt Annie Bartos who left her a massive collection of twentieth century postcards. She transcribes the message from the back and I love the little abbreviations. I think Bro. Joe would have been a great fan of today’s text messaging!

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| WHAT’S PAST IS PROLOGUE Our next postcard – Lux Mundi – comes from geneablogger Donna Pointkouski. Donna shows us the interior of St. Peter’s in Rome and says “I cannot help but feel the overwhelming love of God in addition to literally being overwhelmed by the immensity of the building itself. I am drawn back there time and again”. A heartfelt tribute!

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| DR. BILL TELLS ANCESTOR STORIES If you’ve read Dr. Bill’s recent profile over at Geneabloggers, you’ll know that he’s been involved in the genealogy world for several decades and that he’s the author of several books including his most recent 13 Ways To Tell Your Ancestor Stories. For this issue he’s sharing a night-time view of the little Arkansas chapel where his eldest daughter was married. Quite a contrast to Donna’s Lux Mundi don’t you think?

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Lighthouses are more helpful than churches. ~Benjamin Franklin

| EVA + DANIEL SUTTER | Eva Sutter is new to the Festival but her family sure isn’t! She’s actually the niece of bloggers Sue of This Old Paper and Lee of Postcardiness whose entries can be found elsewhere in this issue. She seems to have inherited their writing talent and has joined us with her post – Fabled Beacon – which depicts a lighthouse in Alexandria. I urge you to visit her eclectic site which is written by two creative bloggers – Eva + Daniel Sutter.

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| TANGLED TREES | Casteel has been in at least five festivals and once again she shares a bit of history with us. This time it’s a bit of Maryland maritime history with her post about the historic Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse from Chesapeake Bay. She really lives up to her mission of “making history your own”.

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| MIKKEL’S HUS | You’ll have to look closely to see why this postcard of the Aerial Bridge in Duluth, Minnesota belongs here but, as Charles Hansen points out, there is a lighthouse over to the far left! Charles always comes up with something a little out of the ordinary. Charles blogs from Washington.

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