New-York Historical Society postcard collection [graphic]

The New-York Historical Society Postcard Collection is divided into four series:

Series I. Geographic Locations | United States (except New York), dates from ca. 1898 to about 1965 and contains about 22,000 cards that generally depict popular tourist destinations, vacation resorts by the sea and in the mountains, prominent buildings, businesses, civic institutions, modes of transportation, and street scenes. Well-represented tourist attractions include the Grand Canyon, and the mountains of New Hampshire. Typical city souvenir cards show attractive urban life in views of public courthouses, libraries, spacious parks, expositions, and architecturally impressive office buildings and bridges. Prominent residences, historical sites, and scenes of nature are also abundant. General sections can be found at the end of most states, larger cities, and some other subsections. These include cards that show unidentified or only generally identified views.

Series II. Geographic Locations | New York, is divided into two subseries:

Subseries II.A. New York State includes cards from popular tourist attractions like Niagara Falls. A General section at the end of New York State includes views along highways, rivers, and train lines that are not geographically specified. The collection documents the changing landscape and architectural history for the areas represented. It may also be valuable source for social historians interested in researching the history of tourism, transportation and cultural identity. Some of the postcards were included as a result of the New-York Historical Society's effort to collect cards with representations of less common views of New York State, such as real photo postcards that document towns or events too small to appear in formal publications. Postcards commissioned by restaurants, hotels and other businesses also provide valuable visual documentation of sites not otherwise represented in the collection.

Subseries II.B. New York City, fills boxes 40 through 60. Cards pertaining to the city as a whole come first: general "Greetings from" cards, Bridges, Celebrations (includes the 1939 and 1964-65 World's Fairs), Future, History, Humor, Islands, and a sizable number of souvenir foldout mailers. Cards pertaining to the five boroughs come next, with the lion's share belonging to Manhattan (boxes 42-56), followed by Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. See the container list for detailed subjects included, which are typically arranged in alphabetical order. Generally, the cards depict churches, prominent named buildings, monuments, parks, squares, and circles, banks, department stores, hotels, museums, restaurants, schools and colleges.

Series III. Geographic Locations | International, contains approximately 2,000 cards relating to Europe, the Caribbean, Canada, and other North, Central, and South American countries. Cards are arranged alphabetically by region, country, and thereunder by city, town or geographical feature. The cards focus primarily on tourist destinations such as historical sites, beaches, lakes and parks.


Series IV. Subjects, contains cards dating from ca. 1898 to 1965 which are arranged alphabetically by topic: Activities & Occupations, Advertising, American Art, American History (events, sites and memorials of historical significance in the United States), Comic, Holidays, Portraits (includes African Americans, Native Americans, and Human Curiosities), Sentimental, Transportation (largely ships and trains), and Unusual Postcards (includes cards on leather, cards on birch bark, a card on a cross section of a tree, embroidered cards and cards on fabric, cat cards, cards with feathers, cards that are drink coasters, embossed cards of New York City and State scenes, accordion-folder cards that pull open, and a lenticular print card, which, when tilted, displays alternate images of Theodore Roosevelt and the White House).