Posts the Old-Fashioned Way!

Exploration and discovery are enduring spirits in the American heart. With the advent of the automobile and growth of mass transportation in the 20th century, nearly every American became an explorer. Freedom to see and experience the world beyond our homes gave way to a new national pastime: vacationing and travel.

The goal was always simple: discover the new, the interesting, the sights that cannot be seen back home. Sharing new discoveries with friends and relatives was easy with the photo postcard. Postcards highlighted what made an area unique by showing buildings, businesses, and attractions.

Many postcard creators probably didn’t realize that they were on the forefront of direct mail marketing. They also didn’t know how they were documenting history. This is what attracts local historian B.J. Summers to the hobby of postcard collecting. His extensive Paducah postcard collection shows us where Paducah has been, where it was going, and the people who took us there.

“I’ve been saving postcards for nearly 45 years now,” says B.J. “They are interesting to use when researching history in Paducah. Sometimes they can answer questions, sometimes they raise questions. You have to be ready to look at the clues they offer and do some interpretation.”

One thing B.J. likes about postcards is that they show the lay of the land and buildings that are no longer standing. “You can look at a Paducah postcard and initially not recognize anything. The original street names have changed, and the original buildings may be gone. I look carefully for any landmark that is still there. You can also look for things like railroad tracks. Once a location is determined, you start to get an idea of what Paducah looked like.”

The next thing B.J. does is work on dating the postcard. “Some are easier than others. Once again, you work off of clues. I have one of the Carnegie Public Library, for example, that shows a whisky bottling facility in the background. If we do our research, we know that the photo had to be taken before prohibition. You can also date using landmarks. You’ll find some of the Ohio River Bridge. We know that was built in 1929, so anything with the bridge will obviously be after that date.”

Areas of downtown Paducah were well documented through postcards, and some of the most fruitful in terms of information are panoramic cards. These were double the size of a normal card. They were folded in half, then mailed. Panoramic cards would often show more than a single building. They would show nearly complete intersections, giving us a view of a slice of the city.

Through postcards, B.J. has discovered some interesting stories that might have otherwise been lost. “I had some cards that showed the original courthouse with two floors. I had some that showed it with three floors. This made me very curious. During a trip to the library, I discovered that the city outgrew the 1888 courthouse. The janitor and the Chief of Police shared a room. So in 1909, they added a third floor by jacking the roof up and adding the top floor. Of course you can tell through postcards as well that the courthouse is now a parking lot.”

B.J. divides his card collection into categories such as hospitals, schools, railroad yards, banks, churches, parks, and so on. Some of the most interesting cards were those created by businesses in order to promote themselves. Hotels and motels were common fare, and restaurants often had postcards that mapped out their locations. There are also plenty of invitation cards to events such as club meetings and dances. In order to get word out quickly and efficiently, direct mail was one of the only options.

“Some businesses would send out a card each month. They were one-month calendars. The idea is that the calendar would be placed on the wall, usually near the telephone. Everyday the calendar would be seen along with the name of the business. It was really great marketing.”

The city itself used postcards in order to promote Paducah as a tourist destination or even a great place to live. Busy street scenes were common as well as photos of homes of prominent Paducahans. Dr. Frank Boyd and Ben Weille’s houses were featured with catch lines such as “Some of the Fantastic Homes that Can be Found in Paducah”.

B.J. warns, however, that sometimes what you see is not what was there. “There was often quite a bit of doctoring that went on. If a photo was used, it was normally black and white. It would then be hand colored. Sometimes things were altered. I met a guy who went to the Paducah High School, and when he saw a card, he recognized that the fire escape on one side had been removed in the photo. He knew its location well enough. He said he slid down it too often to not remember.”

B.J. also has a card that shows the current U.S. Bank building downtown that looks very different from the building we know today. “In a rush to get it out before the public, a card was created using a rendition of what the building was to look like. Plans must have changed before it was actually built, but those cards were already out there.”

Some of his most unique cards are made out of leather. There are also some made of metal. “Can you imagine those going through high-speed sorters today,” laughs B.J. “They are unique and fun to collect, though.”