Vincent goes to Summer Camp

The title of the card is; "Nothing will stop these boys from Pine Island Camp"

I imagine that Vincent wrote to his parents in the early 60s. He hasn’t put the date on his card. He’s enjoying himself a lot in the Island, despite not speaking English very well. He’s managing to get by and anyway there are plenty of sports to join in with.

Pine Island Camp in Belgrade Lakes, Maine is still running and Vincent would have been in the care of the family of the present director who was a child at the time. The camp for boys aged 9 to 15, is over 100 years old and has been run by the same family since the beginning.

This is one of my favourite parts of my job; finding out about a postcard. I found the Pine Island Camp website and really enjoyed my visit. My boys are grown up now; I think they would have enjoyed themselves there too.

An American Sewing Machine

Every young girl's dream...

The New Home sewing machine was from America, but these postcards are both French. Here is the history of the company with lovely old illustrations, I imagine that some of them were postcards too..

Spikehorn Bear Den

I’d be interested if anyone passing can tell me more about the Spikehorn Bear Den in Harrison Mich. From what I’ve found out so far it was a great place to visit. Can anyone date this card for me?


If you want to find something out, ask a Geocacher!

Meet me in Saint Louis, Louis

Meet me in St. Louis, Louis,
Meet me at the Fair
Don't tell me the lights are shining
Any place but there
We will dance the "Hoochie-Koochie"
I will be your "Tootsie-Wootsie"
If you will meet me in St. Louis, Louis,
Meet me at the Fair.

I couldn’t leave this one out and yes, the song was written and the postcard produced for the 1904 World's Fair at St Louis.

Hotel Brighton and much more

 A great number of large hotels were built along the broadwalk at Atlantic city in the late 19th century. The Hotel Brighton was one of the many hotels demolished in the 70s and 80s.

This is a postcard that I can get my teeth into. Why is it marked “Private Mailing Card” and what was the act of Congress of May 19 1898?

 The act of congress allowed postcards to be sent in the post at the lower rate of 1c instead of 2c like a letter. “Private Mailing Card” meant that the postcard was produced by a private publisher rather than the United States Postal Service. Many cards were marked “Postal Card – Carte Postale” which meant that they could enter the international system.

 Because the postcard was sent to France in 1901, the stamp is a 2c commemoration stamp,  marked “Fast Express”, worth about $2 today – if you’re lucky!

 Information about the postal system comes from the Smithsonian Institute website

Mountain View Farm

Sometimes we bid for postcards just from viewing the catalogue. It’s risky, but yesterday some cards arrived that we were very pleased with; a collection of postcards from the US. First off is a postcard of Mountain View Farm, Lee, Mass, sent in 1904. The correspondence is interesting as the writer is discussing the postcard itself:

 “I think these are just right & I am going to colour some of them charge more. Don’t you think we should get 5cts for the coloured ones? Thank you so much for giving them to us”

 I’ve tried to find the farm today but I don’t think that it exists anymore.

Here is a link to our ebay store section on postcards from the US and Canada. You can be sure that we’ll be adding more interesting postcards very soon.