Selling boxes of loose postcards, mostly a hundred, is a minor publishing genre and I find it surprising that a box of mid-century ones from the Tichnor Brothers (America's second biggest printer/publisher after Teich) haven't arrived yet. Though the hundred and thirty in this book reveal what could have been seen in Ohio during past decades it should interest anyone who finds a bit of pop culture and Americana interesting.
The book's four postcard chapters (City scenes, On the road, Landmarks and Large letter) cover it all with their rather flamboyant color and heavy retouching of the original photos. There's a spread of aerial cards of Akron, Kent and Hamilton and they look quite fascinating. Building big hotels in cities must have been in vogue during the twenties to the forties of the last century, one spread has cards from the Waldorf and Secor in Toledo, the Harding in Marion and Hotel Fort Hays in Columbus and I assume these cards, like many of motels in the On the road chapter were given away free as a form of advertising. The Landmarks chapter has thirty-six cards of bridges, rivers, stadiums, colleges and plenty of historic building around Ohio.
A nice idea in the book is that all the cards are life size and fortunately none are angled or overlap each other. Another plus are the informative captions about what happened to many of the buildings throughout the book, especially hotels that were changed into apartments. Most of the old style motels and commercial buildings along the highways were demolished and this is why the book is quite fascinating in revealing the way we were.
The book's four postcard chapters (City scenes, On the road, Landmarks and Large letter) cover it all with their rather flamboyant color and heavy retouching of the original photos. There's a spread of aerial cards of Akron, Kent and Hamilton and they look quite fascinating. Building big hotels in cities must have been in vogue during the twenties to the forties of the last century, one spread has cards from the Waldorf and Secor in Toledo, the Harding in Marion and Hotel Fort Hays in Columbus and I assume these cards, like many of motels in the On the road chapter were given away free as a form of advertising. The Landmarks chapter has thirty-six cards of bridges, rivers, stadiums, colleges and plenty of historic building around Ohio.
A nice idea in the book is that all the cards are life size and fortunately none are angled or overlap each other. Another plus are the informative captions about what happened to many of the buildings throughout the book, especially hotels that were changed into apartments. Most of the old style motels and commercial buildings along the highways were demolished and this is why the book is quite fascinating in revealing the way we were.
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