Real Photo Postcards: Unbelievable Images from the Collection of Harvey Tulcensky

It may be hard to believe, but there actually was a time when the postcard image was not a clich. To reach it, you'll have to set your clock back to the end of the nineteenth century, when an Act of Congress allowed Americans to mail a card for just one cent. A few years later, Kodak introduced an easy-to-use and affordable folding camera that put postcard power into the hands of ordinary citizens, setting off a craze. Real Photo Postcards is a collection of the most outlandish and idiosyncratic, beautiful and even occasionally bizarre images of this early postcard period.
Painstakingly assembled from the collection of Harvey Tulcensky, one of the world's most avid collectors of these original postcards, Real Photo Postcards includes images of natural phenomena (floods, storms, fires), Main Street America, rural life, political parades, and wacky "exaggeration" cards (such as a photographically manipulated giant rabbit!). Together these cards show an oddly personal and intimate perspective of America at the turn of the 20th century.

…a collection of the most outlandish and idiosyncratic, beautiful and even occasionally bizarre images of this early postcard period. – New England Antiques Journal, December 2005

…this volume offers a unique glimpse of the early 20th century through the eyes of the everyman. – Publisher's Weekly

Sometimes beautiful, at times outlandish or bizarre, these postcards portray the optimism, sincerity, and stark reality of their time – Step Inside Design, Jan/Feb 2006