About a year ago a colleague of my husband Steve’s, Alan Abrahams, gave us a set of historical mini-postcards that had been in his family and arrived in his mail from an aunt in England. Alan, who is from South Africa, was looking for some information on the cards. The little cards (each is 1 3/4″ by 2 3/4″) were from his grandparents when they had done an around the world tour some 80 years ago and obviously stopped in Philadelphia. I have scanned the ones I have and will be making inquiries at some museums and collections around town to see what I can find out. The cards, which focus on architecture are, like most travel postcards, anonymous. But they’re beautiful shots taken by someone obviously accomplished with taking shots of buildings. I especially like the ones that show people, like this one of the William Penn statue by Alexander Milne Calder that sits on top of City Hall. No tourists can go that high in City Hall anymore, although recently Councilman Mariano climbed up high in City Hall (maybe not this high) to contemplate some dramatic move in his life.
You can see all the cards on my flickr site. I’ve put them in a set but right now they’re at the top of the photostream. Included are shots of Wanamakers, Girard College, the Betsy Ross House and a nice shot of Chestnut and 11th looking vibrant and touristy.
