New Brunswick, NJ

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I grabbed this up as soon as I saw this little collaged beauty. I am not sure that I immediately digested the weirdness of it entirely but being a Jersey girl at heart I thought it was pretty hotsy totsy. Like many recent posts it came from the postcard show last fall and it went into a pile I am only recently digging into.

Born and bred in the Garden State I admit that I may never have so much as driven through New Brunswick. Looking at the map of the state I must have (may have?) as it is nestled in the crook of the state, just above Monmouth County, heading north and a smidge west. This sounds a bit odd but we didn’t drive west all that often growing up. North of course took you to New York but generally we went up the coast. South brought you to Freehold which seemed to be required occasionally; Princeton where my sister went to school, and ultimately Philadelphia on occasion – we had a cousin there. I rarely made it to the bottom corner of the state, probably not until college and after.

*For those of you who don’t have the map of the state handy in your head.*

The northwest of the state was a rare event. Flemington is up there (I have a friend who moved there recently – hey Hope!), where I can remember going only a few times – it felt exotic. Even our forays into Pennsylvania were usually made by going more south or directly across the state. Years ago I spent some time hiking with a friend along the beautiful Delaware water gap. Christine grew up in that area and knew it well but it was the first time I spent much time there. All this to say that New Brunswick always sat slightly north and west of where I had my formative years and somehow I never much got there or maybe knew if I did. It belongs in a vague category of North Jersey that I would have used when I lived there.

This card is hometown proud indeed. A rendering of a pansy has a collaged-on head and shoulders of a woman in turn-of-the-century finery, wearing a be-ribboned or flower covered hat. She wears the pansy petals like a dress and on each petal is a local building of note shown as actual postcards of significant sites on each petal. They are: Washington public school, Livingstone Avenue High School, St. Peters Parochial School, Carnegie Library, and the Post Office. Clearly they thought highly of their educational institutions.

*New Brunswick Carnegie Public Library, in a contemporary but undated photo.*

The Carnegie Library, shown above, seems to be the only one that is definitely unaltered. I’m on the fence about the post office, shown below, which could be the same building from another angle and with different things around it obviously. The schools have long been replaced (or in the case of the parochial school possibly disappeared) by newer structures. (My own high school in Rumson still exists intact with its old building but a certain amount of building on has happened. You can still see the bones of it however.)

*The Post Office in New Brunswick – I believe it is the one shown in the postcard. The windows are the same.*

Someone has written the initials JHB in the lower right, under Greetings from New Brunswick, NJ. On the back, also written in pencil it says Miss Ethel Hardy, 5 John Street, City. However, it was never mailed and it is incomplete. Another version of the card I found online was mailed in 1908 according to a cancellation mark.

The card was published by Hammel Bros., New Brunswick, NJ. It was made (printed) in Austria however. Hammel Brothers, not surprisingly, seemed to special in cards of a local nature in New Brunswick, NJ, although I do wonder how they would have made a business out of that bit of limited fame and for how long. They have not left many tracks and mostly there are references to a brewery of a similar name and time in New Mexico.

As you read this I will be packing up and heading to New Jersey this morning. As per yesterday’s post, there is snow on the ground (more overnight and a fair amount coming down now) and still a bit more throughout the day, hopefully in a desultory sort of way. Anyway, a tip of the hat to my home state and the undiscovered treasure of New Brunswick from a time passed.

Jack and the Giant Kitty

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: It seems only fair to launch 2026 with Pictorama’s best foot forward so today I share a tatty but wonderful Louis Wain card to help set the tone.

As always, it is impossible to entirely follow Wain’s train of thought. While we all know Jack and the Beanstalk, what might have possessed him on a given day to make a one off cat version? Hard to say, however I will share that frequently as Kim and I go through the world, he pops with one-off ideas that could be one or two page comic strips but because of the nature of his work (long, complex stories) he will likely never use. We might blow them out a bit while we’re walking but know they are unlikely to ever go anywhere. For example I pointed out the other day (we were discussing the idea of a short piece about the orderly way he tends to eat food – I call him a largely linear eater) and he took it down the line a bit of how it could be a comic. That would be if he had a weekly deadline, like back in the days of papers like New York Press, and then he’d be using them all.

Anyway, I imagine Louis Wain, at least at one protracted point in his career, was just grasping at every single idea and utilizing it. Either that or his brain just overflowed with them. Hard to say. (I have happily embraced writing about Louis Wain, his life and work, via a number of items which can be found here, here and most recently here for starters.)

Wain is in his full glory in this card. His humanoid-ish giant cat wields a bread knife with a small potpie in front of him and an oversized mug (stein?) which tiny (rat-sized) sword wielding kitty hides behind. (Would the giant be less dangerous if he had a larger pot pie? Just asking.) The giant has a three-prong fork grasped (awkwardly) in his other fat, white tipped paw. It is a formal table setting and another fork and spoon are in front of his pie. There is a lit candle and, sort of funny, a salt cellar and pepper shaker to his right, our left. A potted plant on a doily is on the other side which is sort of a funny middle-class household look. You can almost imagine Wain added that touch from his own tabletop.

*Early Wain post from ’18. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

The giant and Jack are both brown tabbies – a coloring I am not sure is prevalent in the real world of cats. (Putting Bengals aside as I don’t think they were known at that time.) Giant bully kitty has his ears back (same color as the tapestry design covering the back of his substantial throne-like chair so they blend a bit) in a very real annoyed feline fashion. His fangy toothies show in his whiskered grin, but it is the look of merry mayhem in his eyes that tell the tale! Yep, he sees Jack and he’s thinking a bit of extra protein on the run for today.

Meanwhile, we only see Jack from the back, tiny sword in hand. As noted, he is a slightly darker odd brown version of a similar tabby stripe. He’s sort of portly (hang-y kitty tummy) to be our hero – usually portrayed as a kid or in this case kitten. At the top right it just says, The “Louis Wain” Series. Bottom left says, Jack the Giant Killer and Louis Wain. This card is a bit grimy and found its way to me with some folds – there are indentations (although not holes) which might mean it displayed somewhere – hence the grime but also the survival.

The back sports a somewhat illegible postmark but I can make out April 19 and 1907. This was sent in the United States (most I have seen were sent in Britain) and addressed to Miss Miriam Hall, Bangor, ME 395 Center Street. He writes, Dear Miriam, What do to you think of these Pussies? Papa. I think that’s what it says – Pussies looks more like Jussies though. (However, to go off on a bit of a sidebar – have any of you seen the articles about how the post office is no longer saying that mail will be postmarked on the day it is picked up? It is now going to sorting centers where it will be postmarked before distribution, hence days later. So much for a world where there were AM and PM postmarks!)

Despite the card having been mailed in the United States, it was printed in Great Britain by the ever popular Raphael Tuck & Sons company of Wain fame. The card, it is noted, was designed in Britain and chromographed in Germany. It also bears the indicia that Tuck was the fine art publisher to their majesties the King and Queen, and to TRH the Prince and Princess of Wales.

This jolly card joins a growing subset of Wain cards in my collection. Whatever else that can be said about Mr. Wain, more than 100 years later, he always puts a smile on my face.

Still Young

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: The year is still young enough flash this New Year card, found in the pile on my desk back here in our New York HQ at Deitch Studio. We made the trek back, cats tucked unhappily in their carriers, a few days ago, this past Wednesday. A food delivery (love ya Fresh Direct) will arrive in a bit. After spending the morning with you all here at Pictorama, I will finish unpacking us, break down a bunch of boxes that we moved art supplies and food in, and life will slowly resume its Manhattan manifestation until the summer when the whole crew will decamp again. I will of course be in New Jersey periodically looking in on the Jersey Five (cats) and continuing my efforts to convert Peaches to a pet-able house cat.

Like almost everyone around me, I have started the New Year with a bad cold which is hanging on tenaciously. Meanwhile, Blackie seems a bit morose which leaves us scratching our heads – we know he doesn’t miss the other cats there. Was his spot on a chair in the sun that nice? Or under another chair and near a heat vent? He’s eating but carrying an expression of world weariness. He hisses at Cookie as if he never met her before – something he does when we return to the apartment.

Okay, onto the postcard! I don’t know how I missed this brilliant card when piling up ones for New Jersey, but I did and I cannot wait a whole year to share it. This one has weirdly wonderful all over it. It wasn’t cheap but it was among some items I considered a bit of a bargain when purchased last fall.

I am a longstanding sucker for a good moon face and this one certainly qualifies; I could not ask for better. What really kills me is the weird little skirt-wearing body they have attached it too. (Is the moon a woman?) Weird nebulous feet on sort of fat baby-esque legs and the amorphous body is finished off with hands that look like they belong to yet something else. That moon head just floats though and is more substantial so at first you don’t put it together with the body, but then you do and chuckle!

The cheeky cherubs, in the arms of the moon, have a champagne bottle, held by one while the other toasts (or is it offering the glass to the moon?) with a glass full of bubbly. Dark clouds fill an even darker blue green sky behind them. Because it is dark it is hard to see but this card is lightly embossed, the cherubs in the highest relief but the clouds are gently shaped too, the moon’s dress also in low relief giving it texture. It wishes us A Happy New Year at the bottom in an Arts and Crafts writing so decorative it takes a minute to read it.

*Back of card – what is the aunt’s name?*

This card is postmarked on December 30, 1907, from somewhere in Pennsylvania; the town is illegible. To the best of my ability to read the brown ink script it says: Hello! Auntie: – How you feeling by this time red’d your letter this morning am very glad your roommate studys [sic] harmony once in a while. Your niece Ethel. It is address to Miss Grace Mangst, Warrin. Ohio D.M.J. No maker mark is in evidence on the card – which is too bad because these folks had something going on. I don’t usually hang seasonal cards but this one’s a gem.

Of course the big 2026 news here at Deitch Studio is Kim’s book, How I Make Comics is coming out in April. It is on pre-order – find it here. We find ourselves already deeply immersed in how to help launch this book. In the service of promoting it, I am toying with doing a podcast where Kim and I will talk about the origins of the stories and his history in comics. As I have previously with other intimidating projects (I know nothing about recording and editing), I share this with you all to help keep me honest about working on it. However, I am also asking you to weigh in on the idea. Is it a good one? Will folks listen? Or should I keep to my tip tap typing? Please weigh in below or leave a comment.

Snow Person

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama.com Photo Post: Today we woke to several inches of snow and more falling so this card seemed like the logical item for today. Purchased a few weeks ago on eBay, I brought it to New Jersey figuring I might have a big opportunity to post it – and right I was.

*No judging my nascent shoveling as shown from upstairs.*

First thing this morning had me out for a rare morning of snow shoveling. Ouch! I am perhaps a bit long in the tooth to adopt this as an occupation – today’s snow, shoveled early, was pretty light but already forming and icy layer under it so it was best to get it done early, or at least the first go at it. I don’t have much skill at this shoveling thing although my mom always did it until she grew too old and then she hired someone. I have someone who comes when I am not here or it is too hard, although he is nursing a bad respiratory infection so another reason to give Fitzroy a break.

Clearly, we are here in New Jersey, having our holiday break. The New York cats adapted fairly quickly to their surroundings and even Cookie is wandering down the stairs with some curiosity about the house at large. Peaches, the meanest of the Jersey Five, is still hissing at us but allowing me to get every closer before she starts. (Not Kim, he still gets the big hiss early on!) Blackie has made his way upstairs to see his sister, eat her food and give her a hard time. (We separate them here for that reason – we’d never get any rest otherwise. The fighting will continue back in NYC for a bit before it subsides.)

Yesterday, we wandered into Red Bank despite the plummeting temperatures ahead of the snow. I made some interesting acquisitions but more about that to come in future posts.

*Kim in his temporary studio earlier today. Snow out the window.*

Anyway, this is an odd card. It was sent from Berlin to Monte Video on September 9, 1908. It is too hard to read the full foreign address but it was sent to Herr Christianson with no note on the back and one I am unable to translate on the front. (If someone else can, please share a translation!)

What got me was this strange snowman, slightly strange looking girl (with a bit of a wicked expression on her face) who looks like she is whispering in his ear. She sports a pointed, witch-like hat with a bow. The snowman is complete artifice, is he painted? Perhaps painted on wood and cut out so she can be solidly behind him in her fur trimmed attire. He wears a sort of smushed (top?) hat, has a sort of long pipe and this cheery little broom. I especially like the snow, which I am guessing was a post production addition.

The top of the card, the best I can read it, has Gluckuches and Neujahr printed at the top. The latter seems to bring up German New Year’s cards which is what I think this is. Below is another (very delightful) card that came up when I search Neujahr. Sorry I missed this one on eBay!

*Unfortunately not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection and produced by the same company. Champagne! Money falling! Not clear to me what the other woman is dropping – bills? cards?*

So on a snowy Saturday in New Jersey less than a week before the New Year, I consider the upcoming one, more than a hundred years since this card was sent. I wonder what secrets of the New Year she whispered into the ear of the snowman and what tales of the year she’d have for the year to come for us today.

On Christmas Day Have Mirth and Laughter

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: We have a cat Christmas card entry of a jolly sort today, something to get us tuned up for Thursday.

Here in Manhattan, after about four inches of snow last week, we were awash in rain yesterday. (We’re talking street flooding – a lot of rain!) Although there is precipitation in the forecast for later this week, I’d gamble a guess that it will be a green Christmas in New Jersey. A few degrees either way though and we’ll see. Pretty as the snow is (see below for some photos of the house last week) I guess I am old enough to see the disadvantages of shoveling (or paying someone to!) and the slippery sidewalks and roads. We do like to take some long walks when we are out there. However, I wouldn’t mind a sprinkling for Christmas though to see if it could put me in the holiday mood a bit which I could use.

*Snowy front yard in NJ last week!* *From a friend’s phone video.*

The end of the calendar year is always a very busy time for fundraisers. I believe I have opined on this in the past and since the earliest days of my chosen career, the last weeks of the year have been fraught with either being too busy (at the Met) or not busy enough (my first years at Jazz).

My current gig combines its Top Dog Gala and its fiscal year end at the already very busy calendar year end. It’s pretty boffo. However, now in my second year end there I understand it a bit better and I am hoping for some down time, even while keeping an eye on things at the office. I am also old enough to know that we have a plan we’re executing and what will be will be. It isn’t really the sort of place, like the Met, where someone is going to decide they want to donate a valuable mortgaged piece of property in the last ten days of the year.

*Decorating and setting up for Top Dog earlier this month.*

Therefore in my adult life there has never really been a holiday season that has been free of work concerns. There was the year I left Jazz right before the end of the year, but that was a year of other losses and the holidays were a bit sad and full of the anxiety of a new job. Sometimes you just do the best you can do over the holidays.

The card at the top of the post sums it up well, Whatever fortune my come after, on Christmas Day have mirth and laughter. Mom and Dad cat (perched on an ottoman) are in an interesting composition of paws and tails. (The adult cats form a really great sort of central square with a paw and a tail leading us in and out!)

Their progeny, in kitten form, giggle and poke each other next to mom on the couch. There’s something about the furniture that makes me think that it is so specific it refers to real furniture somewhere in the artist’s life. It’s a very suburban and somewhat prosperous scene. Whatever their world weary worries are Mom and Dad cat chuckle together.

The artist knew cats. Dad cat is a proper orange marmalade and mom a darker orange and brown mix – producing an orange kit and as well as a black and white tabby. This combination certainly within the possibility of likelihood.

The copyright on the card is actually 1890 by a company called L. Prang and Company of Boston, USA. Below I share (in its entirety) an entry on Louis Prang via the Boston Public Library:

Louis Prang (1824-1909), a German immigrant, ran a highly successful printing firm in Boston during the late nineteenth century. His company produced high quality reproductions of major art work and greeting cards using the complex technique of chromolithography. Prang is often referred to as the ‘Father of the American Christmas Card’ because holiday cards were rarely exchanged in America until his factory began producing them in the 1870s.

A quick look at his other wares in terms of Christmas cards does not show many of this type. He generally seemed to go in more for arty reproductions of flowers and holly. There is a tiny signature for the artwork, EBW. I cannot find tracks on him, perhaps his foray into cat cards was brief – or he eventually expanded his signature.

This card was never sent but in faded pencil on the back, in script, it says, John Peckham.

*78th Street on our way to Orwasher’s last Sunday.*

So today’s card is a shot over the bow for those of us who are having trouble getting the the holiday spirit. I will spend my day packing us up for our 2-3 week sojourn in New Jersey. And cleaning the apartment – I like to come home to start the New Year in a reasonably clean apartment.

Tomorrow is the 2025 Deitch Studio card reveal. For ongoing readers, you knew it was coming! For now however, try to insert a bit of ho, ho, ho into your proceedings and if not, at least for the day later this week!

Paul Pilz

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am taking a break from holiday influenced item posts (but evidently still devoted to dogs), to bring you an item I purchased at an odd venue last weekend. An ad on Instagram for an Oddities Flea Market (@odditiesfleamarket) caught my eye and on a whim I paid for tickets for Kim and I to go. I knew most of it would not be of interest to me, but I figured that maybe 25-30% of the vendors might be interesting. The line to enter (even with tickets) went down West 18th Street at the Metropolitan Pavilion and evidently it is an annual affair with a devoted following I have just never heard of previously.

The percentage of Pam’s Pictorama type vendors was perhaps a tad lower than 25%, but black cat items sort of did have a big moment there and I ended up making a not insignificant number of purchases in the end – and could easily have spent even more. One thing that got away at this table was an old orange ceramic cat that lit up. It had already been broken and repaired and I would say the ability to get it to light up seemed dubious, but in the end it just seemed too fragile to come live here at Deitch Studio. Still, I imagine that it must have a great orange glow if you could get it working. Anyway, you will be the beneficiaries of those interesting tidbits I did buy in coming weeks and this is the first of them I am sharing.

This photo postcard came from a vendor who had a nice little cache of black cat and other interesting items. After shelling out for some bigger items I pawed through some excellent (and reasonably priced) boxes of photo postcards. I plucked out two, and Kim one, and today I share the first of them now.

A quick search of Paul Pilz turns up a fairly thorough blog post on him which can be found here. I have nicked this other photo of Pilz from that site. It is a larger shot of him but very similar.

*Alternate version of the same publicity photo, seems like this one was used pre-War however – not in Pictorama.com collection.*

I won’t endeavor to repeat what that post has to say, but between that site and AI I learned that Pilz was evidently part of a traveling troupe on what is described as very small stages with a dog act, accompanied by him on the trumpet and doing comedy. This popular act ultimately morphed into one where he was a featured performer entertaining the German troops during WWI. (Wanderfheafer Armee Abf. A. on this card – they were already an army headliner. I shudder in horror some indeed at the idea of what traveling with a troop of dogs entertaining troops during WWI might have been like although for the dogs it might have been the best of gigs and options.)

Although I generally collect images of animal imitators (some posts on those can be found here and here for starters) I do have a sub-genre of photos that feature acts (here is one of several) and these seem to belong here too.

There was a recent article in the New York Times about a dog act at the Big Apple Circus (at this time it can be found here, entitled The Show Stealing Dogs of the Big Apple Circus) and so I had a moment recently to contemplate the treat filled world of dog tricks. I like the part where the trainer says if they mess up (balk at jumping through a hoop for example) he just makes it part of the act.

*From the NYT article, performing pups.*

Years ago Kim took me to a cat circus (Russian) performing downtown here in New York. I even had my photo taken with the ringmaster – for a price of course. I loved it! The photo hangs on an overflowing corkboard near our computer where a drawing of Kim (by Dave Collier’s son who visited about a year ago), something about Carter De Haven and an long ago article on a nascent Ugly Betty cover it. I wanted to pet the kitties which was, understandably, not encouraged. From the perspective of having seen that, I will say, cats or dogs, performing is a treat filled activity and I can only assume it is the rigorous work outs that keep the animals trim.

Under his name it says, roughly translated, with self-written repertoire – I guess a way of saying original gags? It declares Humor at the top, in case the photo didn’t alert you. The sort of masked characters on either side of that are a bit terrifying. Urns of flowers are on either side and a decorative bow tied image of him make up this card.

In the photo he presents a comical character with his trumpet, and his dog in his arms held like a baby. He looks at the dog and the pup looks out at the camera. I’m not sure but this photo may have been artificially put together from two – it doesn’t quite fit as a real image. I’m not sure I can entirely follow the concept of a dog act driven by trumpet playing. It sounds – loud!

This card is a bit tatty but was never mailed, no writing on the back and therefore no date certain, except that it clearly was during the war. I wonder if these were given out to troops when they were performing – and how strange that if so it has survived all these years just to land here in December of New York City of 2025 and find its way to the Pictorama library.

Kicking Off the Holidays: Fleureux Noel

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Evidently the literal (Google) translation of the flourish at the top is Christmas Flower but I am thinking it is perhaps more like Christmas Tree because that is what this kit is bringing home or delivering today.

This card is a nod in honor of those of you who get that tree and put it up right after Thanksgiving – which was at one time the holiday tradition in the Butler family home. After a few years it was a fake tree (mom developed a distaste for killing a tree for the holidays) and I always missed the smell of a real one. Luckily here in Manhattan I get to walk past them on the street and enjoy! I don’t do a tree in New Jersey – it would just be a giant, expensive, messy cat toy. However, I have employed a wreath and some swags on the railings of the front door in there and it has a lovely smell each time you walk in. (I also discovered that this do-it-yourself outdoor decor thing is harder than it looks!)

*The front door, most of the way done for the holidays…it was a several day process.*

On this cat card snow is falling on this already amply covered mountain scene. (I’m a sucker for snow in pictures, just ask Kim – I always ask to put it in the Christmas card! It is a lovely decorative element.) The tree isn’t especially well secured – snow covered, it is in fact a bit precarious in its (large) pot on the back of this wooden sled – and sports a few decorations, a gift box, some lights even if you look carefully.

Our kitty driver is a bit oblivious – he’s knocked this other unfortunate fellow aside. He does sport a nifty little tie around his neck, sled “reins” in his paws and snow shoes on his lower extremities – which I guess makes sense if you are an anthropomorphic puss. He has a fluffy tail but his fur otherwise suffices to keep him (and the others) warm in the snow. No hat, Mr. Cat?

The small cat which has been casually bowled over onto his bottom by this sled notwithstanding (I think of this as a bit of a ham-handed tip of the hat to Louis Wain myself), Mr. Driver Cat keeps his eyes on the path. There are two cats watching him go by – well, one is and the other is looking off elsewhere. The snow covered mountain peaks are in the distance and high above the scene. I am not exactly sure what the artist has sketched in behind the mountains and below the clouds – there are lines which might be water? Hard to say.

It has to be said that the sender had little respect for the card (or was it the postal service requirement?) and plunked a stamp on the front. As a result I can’t read the cancellation with place and date. It also almost covers the already difficult to read name of the card maker. I think it is Favorite, maybe a company name; it is pretty illegible. (There is also a sort of silver-izing or oxidizing of this card which makes it extra shiny in spots in the light and which make it harder to read.) I quick look at my own archive and I come up with Maurice Boulanger as the likely artist. (That was a New Year’s card back in 2019 which can be found here – ironically I opined that I would like to travel less for work in the coming year. Little did any of us know what March of 2020 would bring!) I have had other Boulanger cards in color recently – you can read one of those here.

*Let me know if I have missed something in my rough translation!*

This card was sent by someone named Louis and he has nicely dated the card as December 23, 1912. It is addressed to Monsieur et Madame Richard at what appears to be: S Rue Caron Malakof, Seine. (He has written over Malakof and I have checked the spelling online.) I don’t read French and the (very) rough translation appears to be something along the lines of: Dear Charles, I’m sorry, I had to go, I’ll woke up the [?}, he had been warned, but I’ll skip Christmas if that doesn’t bother you, I’ll be at your place around the 7th, say hello to everyone. Louis If I am missing something vital I ask you French readers to share!

Back in the early part of the 20th century the French did extremely well with holiday cards – New Year’s cards being their forte – which I continue to enjoy today. In fact, Pictorama may have one of those lurking in the pile for this year. I assure you all that some gems are hiding in this pile still!

Kiss Me Good-Night

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I love a good moon postcard and this one above was one of several I have to share from my recent big buy. I ended up purchasing the other two for Kim, similar but not the same series and from an entirely different source (spotted them online and picked them up for our anniversary – they arrived in the house day of!), and since these will go up on the wall soon, I wanted to give them a moment in the Pictorama spotlight.

Postcards that belong to a series like these seem to have been popular in the early 20th century. It’s curious to think about – so was the thought you’d buy the whole series and send them, one by one, to the same person? With them waiting to see how the “story” comes out? It’s hard to believe that, even at a time which saw daily postcard mailing, that such continuity existed in the real world.

These are remarkably alike in some ways – it is hard to believe that they are not at least by the same company, however no, they are not. The hand coloring of Kiss Me Good-Night is more lurid, although perhaps the others have faded. Kiss Me has a great moon face with a sort of open-mouthed expression. The couple, surrounded by cushions and drapes prepare to embrace in a good-night embrace. That moon looks a little judge-y maybe he suspects something about this couple canoodling the night away that we don’t.

Unromantically, this card was sent by Ruthie to her sister, Miss Lana Russell, 2025 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia Pa. It was mailed on January 17, 1917 from McConnellstown, PA and says, Dear Sis – Just a card to see how you are. I am at Mc at the Present. Just here for a few days. Will write later. Ruthie. Very little romance in that!

However, the two other cards have a bit of a story as both were mailed to Miss Addie Clask, 1715 Pitt Street, Dallas, TX. These share the idiosyncrasy of a big flourish around the M in Miss and are from the same series of romantic cards. I like the card where Teddie signed with the little stars or flowers! Both appear to have been mailed in May (May 4 and 21 respectively – although weirdly 22 has been penciled in on the latter and he has in fact hand dated it May 23) 1915 as far as I can read the year.

*The more practical, thank you card from a brother or friend.*

*Somewhat illegible back of the May 4 card.*

The earlier of the two is the more prosaic, What’s on your mind which seems appropriate as the message is distinctly more fraternal. It appears (roughly) to read, Helluw Just (?) of cards and my letters so this least. We all ok and many many thanks for sending any mail for me so answer soon as E (?) of friend. The signature is also illegible and might be Joe something. Something about his abbreviated speak reminds me of my lazy texting. He appears to have writing #7 twice at the top, quite definitely.

*Not surprisingly, the more romantic missive of the two.*

However, perhaps not surprisingly Would you refuse me a kiss appropriately has the more personal message. Although the handwriting is better is it still a chore to decipher. He provides a return address as Mc Gregar, Texas with the (wrong) date and with a bit of additional flourish it says, Miss addie, My Dearest – I am safely landed and am fine and dandy. Will et Piel (??) a letter soon I miss so…[can’t read] Teddie. B.

I found these two additions to the series online. I wonder if the one on the left originally had something written under it – this from a poster image taken from the card.

I like these cards with their moon seat poses and the starry backgrounds which I can’t quite decide if they were applied later or were a real background. These are from a larger series and several, shown below, were easily found – some have been transformed into different forms – a poster in one case – but you get the idea. These cards appear to be American produced and are identified as Moon Series with corresponding identifying numbers.

*Addie must have appreciated a nice M flourish!*

While I believe the first card (Kiss Me Good-Night) is also from a series it was not easily findable online like the others. That card, while mailed in the US was German produced. I found only the image below which might be from the same series.

*A beaut but not in the Pictorama collection. Seems to be for sale on a site that might be Czech.* *Look at that leering moon face!*

I have a few more moon cards up my sleeve for future posts. Aside from posing with a giant Felix doll, I can’t think of a better way to have been captured in time and place.

Wild Cats: Catskills Part One

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Among my postcard pile are several cat related cards that advertise the early 20th century pleasures of the Catskill Mountains. Today I kick off a several part post which promises a bit of meandering through both the card and my memories of the region which I frequented during my childhood and into young adulthood, the Catskills.

Somewhere in my mind there is a parallel universe where I either live there or have a house there rather than at the Jersey shore. However mountains seem to have a very different effect on me than the water which tends to energize me with the light and air. Mountain valleys seem to cast you in their shadow and for me are sleepier. I am not sure even I understand this entirely, but has been a nagging thought since childhood when we would visit cousins there.

Looking up the name or word Catskill it seems it comes from the Dutch meaning wild cat creek – more along the lines of the kind of feline (think mountain lion or catamount) that would cheerfully tear you to bits or perhaps a wild mountain stream water body that would? That has little to do with this very jolly crew I offer today. Mine are more like partying, wild, mad fellows.

Eleven pussycats of striped and white variations bear balloons spelling out their destination CATSKILL MTS. Each appears to be in possession of a balloon except the drivers of each of these early open cars. (The driver cats are responsibly paying attention to the road, safety first, and have no balloons – although somehow there are still eleven balloons!) I do pause to wonder, did the motor cars have tops you could pull over in inclement weather? Probably not so wow, were they ever chilly in the winter – but I guess a horse carriage or ride no less so. Since our card presents the land of summer I will guess there were no worries about that here.

All is portrayed with great realism and the famous mountains of the area climb upward behind them, dust flying from their wheels. I like the headlights on these cars, four apiece. It took me a bit before I realized that there are three cars, not two, the back one mostly obscured in the dust.

At the lower left corner, it declares, Drawing only Copyright by Albert Hahn NY. Not exactly sure what else Mr. Hahn could copyright here – the name Catskill? Then, to further confuse the issue it also is signed W. Reiss very lightly in the lower right. I can find nothing about him.

*Only version of the Rip Van Winkle series I could find. Not in Pictorama collection.*

There are some tracks for Albert Hahn as a cat card producer – at least to say there are other cards produced under his name. I cannot find much information about him or his career and he quickly seems to get confused with a better known Dutch political cartoonist (AI’s weakness seems to be this sort of meshing of people if you aren’t careful) who I believe is someone else entirely.

However, I could find enough evidence of him Hahn to know he produced a series of postcards about the Spirit of Rip Van Winkle between 1907 and 1909, a sole image from that found on an old eBay listing and shared above. This of course refers to the popular story by Washington Irving, and which as luck would have it, Kim just read recently. Meanwhile, I purchased another Hahn cat card which I will share subsequently.

*I don’t see his copyright info but this also came up under his name. Not in Pictorama collection.*

A simple message in script is written on the back, Tell father that the package was received last evening. I’m getting along nicely. Auntie Jean. It was mailed to, Master Wm. B. Rankin, Tenafly, NJ box 1540. It was mailed from East Wyndham, NY on August 6, 1907. East Wyndham appears to be an enclave in the Catskills, north of Kingston. The back of the card confirms that it was is No. 2000 Published by Albert Hahn, 229 B’way, N.Y., Germany.

*Another comical card from this series. Apologies I couldn’t find a better version of the image!*

So I leave you today, a chilly fall morning, with this jovial image of summer days. Apartment cleaning and some cooking beckons and is bringing me back to the reality of a fall day here in Manhattan.

Gusty

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I plucked this one out of the Pictorama library (aka pile on my desk) today as it is quickly turning wintery and windy here in New York City. I itch to say it is premature, however late November is technically more than fair game. We saw some snow the other day – for about 20 minutes it was snow globe shaken glory out the window. It ended and turned sunny by the time Kim and I exited for our morning walk – he walks me part of the way to my office most days, a new practice I find very enjoyable.

I have not yet fetched the down jackets from their basement lair. Instead I have been layering bits and pieces on and topping with a big scarf. (I displayed said scarf – and gloves! – in my cat clothing mania post last week which you can find here if you missed it.) I am heading to the west side to a dinner party tonight so I think I have put it off long enough and I need to spring it today and let them commence their winter service.

I have purchased a warm black wool hat which I have worn and already lost and found and lost again. I think I need to purchase my hats in brighter colors perhaps, making them harder to loose. Anyway, I believe it to still be in this very small apartment so it should turn up. I am eyeing my boots much earlier in the year than usual, more for warmth than for wet.

A recent attempt to provide the cats with a heated bed has been somewhat unsuccessful. Blackie prefers my spot on the bed (preferably slipping into it while still warm from me in the morning). Cookie will sleep in the bed – however with the heat off and a towel lining it so it doesn’t smell like whatever it smells like which they have indicated stinks and will not do.

*Blackie this very morning, having hopped into my spot immediately upon my vacating it. In fact, truth is he sat on top of me, willing me to get up!*

Meanwhile, today’s card is a Maurice Boulanger design, A Gusty corner in Catland. It was sent on March 25, 1904 from Newcastle-on-Tyne to Miss L. Poppleton, 19 Henry Street, Sheildfield. So I think it was a card appropriate to the weather there and then. The note on the back simply says, Dear Lizzie, Do not come tonight as I have to go straight home. come in on Wednesday if possible. Nellie XXXXX. Amazing to think of a time when there were enough mail deliveries in a day that you could send such a note with the expectation it would get there in time! It was the text of its day.

I have written about Boulanger before (prior posts can be found here and here) as he along with Manzer (a choice example here) were the worshippers at the Wain alter. In reality Boulanger was a contemporary of Wain and definitely working the same side of the street with his jolly anthropomorphic kits, perhaps a bit less maniacal than Louis Wain’s. (As I say that I realize that I have some pretty whacky examples coming up for future posts however. He can get his crazy on too.) Alongside Wain he rose to prominence in the early aughts of the 20th century.

This card utilizes just black and white (and therefore gray) in the printing. Kim and I were just talking the other day about how it wasn’t that long ago that any color, let alone full color, printing was substantially more expensive. (I always have to remind myself when printing things at work that this is no really longer true.) So it was a clever design for a slightly less expensive line of cards is my thought.

Above is another Boulanger from my collection utilizing only black and white. The post for this New Year’s greeting can be read here. Perhaps the same park scene but in full blown, snowy winter? No human sartorial splendor for these felines – they are just in their fur (hope it is warm enough) and only one bow between the three for decorative effect.

This quartet of kitties was out for a stroll in some sartorial splendor when the wind whipped up tossing hats and skirts astray! A monocle goes flying and we are moments from an accident as this puss also chases his hat while stepping carelessly off a curb. The gentlemen cats in question both sport top hats and while the little girl’s is well secured, moma kitty fears that her chapeau will take flight as well. Interesting that the two men cats have bushy and evident tails (Blackie just puffed his up this morning when a pile of papers fell under Kim’s desk – quite a look!) and the girls here keep their under their ample frocks.

The scene reminds me of Central Park but we will suppose a park in France or Britain was the likely origin. (The card was printed in Austria but the copyright language all in English so I am thinking a British product.)

The word on the street is that it is a cold and snowy winter ahead here in the Northeast of the United States. I have a stock of wintery cards ahead so I guess I say let it snow!