Wild Postcards

How did we ever get along before Photoshop?

“Also often called the Antelabbit, this, the most amazing of all desert animals is reputed to be a cross between a Jack Rabbit and an Antelope. Rumor has it that the Jackalope sings at night in a voice that sounds almost human.” This Continental-sized Plastichrome card was distributed by Petley Studios of Phoenix, Arizona, and probably dates back to the mid-1970s.

"Birds and Blossoms" by Gene Klebe

This unvarnished card from the Cape Shore Paper Company shows (from the top down) a bluebird, female and male summer tanagers, and a meadowlark. The age is undetermined and, while it’s not that new, it’s not that old either.

One day, about three years ago, my boss and I were walking back from lunch when he noticed this card lying on the front steps of our building. There was nobody else around, so we had no way of knowing who might have dropped it, or why they were carrying it in the first place. Very odd.

In the doghouse

Here’s a cute card to Great-Grandpa Phil from someone called Bill, presumably a friend. Postmarked not too far from Phil in Vanderbilt, PA, August 3, 1912.

A card from Bill.

Hazelton, BC to Halifax, NS: Mr. & Mrs. P.J. Carroll, 1936-37

There are more than a few real photo postcards out there depicting Patrick J. “Paddy” Carroll, his wife Beatrice, and their sled dog team on their transcontinental trip, but this one has no postcard markings on the back — making it technically just a photo. My notes say that I paid ten cents for it in 1998.

It’s difficult to find concrete information on the Carrolls. Supposedly, it was Beatrice who raised and trained the dogs, and that their trip was financed, at least in part, through the sale of postcards like these. Also, Paddy is said to have written a small booklet of poems entitled Ditties of a Dog Musher, again using the proceeds towards the trip. It also appears that their trip was successful, and that they returned the same way the following year.

After the trip, the Carrolls are said to have settled in Granisle, British Columbia, where Paddy Carroll became a prospector and did quite well in the copper mine trade.

Well, Scraps is a boy dog, isn't he?

This real photo postcard is printed on AZO paper and, judging from the stampbox, was produced sometime between 1904 and 1918. It was purchased in the same lot as this real photo postcard of a barn and I would not be surprised if it came from the same family.