Product Description

Lavishly illustrated, this encyclopedic volume provides the most comprehensive look at the history and culture of real photo postcards to date.

The Real Photo Postcard Guide is an informative, comprehensive, and practical treatment of this wildly popular American phenomenon that dominated the United States photographic market during the first third of the twentieth century. Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh draw on extensive research and observation to address all aspects of the photo postcard from its history, origin, and cultural significance to practical matters like dating, purchasing, condition, and preservation.

Illustrated with over 350 exceptional photo postcards taken from archives and private collections across the country, the scope of the Real Photo Postcard Guide spans technical considerations of production, characteristics of superior images, collecting categories, and methods of research for dating photo postcards and investigating their photographers.

In a broader sense, the authors show how "real photo postcards" document the social history of America. From family outings and workplace awards to lynchings and natural disasters, every image captures a moment of American cultural history from the society that generated them.

Bogdan and Weseloh's book provides an admirable integration of informative text and compelling photographic illustrations. Collectors, archivists, photographers, photo historians, social scientists, and anyone interested in the visual documentation of America will find the Real Photo Postcard Guide indispensable.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #610813 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-21
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 274 pages

Editor, Postcard Pillar, Wellington, New Zealand
...an absolute must for any serious collector whether...photo historians or people who have the responsibility of collections of photographs...

Matt Damsker, Photography Central
... if this handsomely produced book isn't the definitive general guide to understanding, valuing, and collecting photo postcards, nothing is.

About the Author
Robert Bogdan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Social Science at Syracuse University. He is the author of many books including Exposing the Wilderness: Early Twentieth-Century Adirondack Postcard Photographers and Adirondack Vernacular: The Photography of Henry M. Beach, both published by Syracuse University Press. His column on real photo postcards is a monthly feature in the magazine The Postcard Collector.

Todd Weseloh was the librarian/archivist at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse and has been an active collector of postcards since 1976.

Customer Reviews

the last word on real photo postcards
Beautifully written, this all inclusive text will enchant all levels of deltiologists (real photo collectors et al)with an excellent in-depth study of the photographer-generated postcard. Well illustrated, this oversized edition reads like a novel: it's very difficult to put down. As a long-time collector, I learned more from this book than all others on the topic No use to take a college level course in real photo: its right between these pages. Definitely 5* & well worth the investment. Bravo to Bogden!

A Must Have Book on Real Photo Postcards
This comprehensive reference book is a must-have" for collectors of real photo postcards or for anyone starting out collecting.
It provides information and examples on how postcards document our history.
Very well done.
I'm very happy to have it.

Post card collector reviews
In the thirty five years of collecting postcards, with real photo post cards my speciality, there has never been a good book, until now covering this subject.

This book of 274 pages covers all aspects of what one would ever wish to know about this form of collectiing. Major chapter headings are: Introduction, Fundamentals, Photographers & Careers, Dimensions of Desirability,Collecting Categories, Objects to Treasure, Sitting in the Graveyard & Conclusion. Each chapter has many subdivisions, very well marked in the table of contents by page number. At the end is a very complete appendix & index. Being on the subject of photographs there are naturally a great number, totaling around 270.

The only reason I did not rate this 5 star is that the quality of the photo reproduction is not in keeping with the tremendous efforts the authors have put into this book. Though the photos are O.K., with todays technology, I feel the publisher let the authors down.

Collectors have been waiting a long time for a book like this, & I very much doubt that there is more to be said on this subject. The authors are to be congradulated on a job well done.