Photo Archivist's Selection of the Month: June 2005

Portrait Postcards, Early 20th Century

In the early part of the 20th century it was quite fashionable to have one's picture taken and made into a postcard that one could mail to friends and family. We have a little collection of those, and below is a selection. Unfortunately, we don't know much about the subjects themselves except the names given by the donors of the cards, and more often than not, we do not have a date either. However, they all date from 1907 or later, since all postcards shown here have a divided back, which first came inot use in 1907.

If any descendants of the families shown below happen to see this and can give us more information, we would greatly appreciaty this. Please e-mail us at history@stamfordhistory.org.

Some of the postcards were trimmed, apparently to get rid of the white border. None of them are in good shape, as opposed to most of the commercial postcards we have in our collection. The process and paper may have to be blamed. Deliberately, we did not edit any blemishes out.

The J.C. Reynolds Family
The Weed Family


Joseph Franklin of Yale & Towne, 1924 (the others are unknown)	Stuart Palmer, 1915 (taken in New Hampshire)	“Early Italians in Stamford” left to right: Mazza, Barbagelata Guassardo, Henry Bracchi, Frank Robotti (Star Confectionary)