During the first half of the 20th century, communication by postcard was an inexpensive and popular means of exchanging travel stories, news, and gossip across the United States. The postcard, for just a few cents, connected friends and loved-ones separated by hundreds of miles. Today, we treasure these little correspondences of yesteryear as unique glimpses into the long-lost places of a long-gone era. Minneapolis and St. Paul in Vintage Postcards captures this historic era of Minnesota's "twin cities" through 200 classic postcard images. Inside will be found views of St. Paul's Hotel Ryan, providing a rare glimpse into a once-famous landmark that no longer stands. A picture of a solitary 1911 automobile traveling along Minneapolis' popular Lake Calhoun Drive will remind us of how one may have gone to-and-fro at the start of the last century. And the scene of a well-dressed Minnesota family at Minnehaha Falls shows us that this site was as popular among tourists in 1908, when the image was taken, as it is today.

Postcards are usually associated with banal holiday pleasantries, but they have been made possible by sophisticated industries and institutions, from printers to postal services. Historically, postcards' innovation and significance was their ability to send and receive messages around the world easily and inexpensively. Fundamentally, postcards are about creating personal connections: links between people, places and beliefs. In this book Lydia Pyne examines postcards on a global scale, to understand them as artefacts that are at the intersection of history, science, technology, art and culture. In doing so, she shows us that postcards were the first global social network, and how here, in the twenty-first century, postcards are not yet extinct.

Christopher Deakes worked for many years as a shipping agent in the Far East and in different parts of Africa. He has been an avid collector of shipping postcards and his first book, The Postcard History of the Passenger Liner, was published to great acclaim.

"The perfume of the orange blossoms . . . the beauty of every scene, combine to make me wonder whether I am not in Paradise," wrote one visitor to Winter Park, Florida, in 1918. Just five miles north of Orlando, Winter Park's oak-lined brick streets and its quiet lakes have been attracting visitors since the late 19th century, when U.S. president Chester A. Arthur declared, "This is the prettiest spot I have seen in Florida." The New Englandlike city in the heart of the subtropics was once home to the Seminole Hotel, the largest resort south of Jacksonville. In 1885, prestigious Rollins College was founded here, the first institution of higher learning in Florida.

With the advent of new and inexpensive photographic technology emerging in the United States during the mid-19th century, communication by postcard became a very popular way to exchange travel stories, news, and gossip over the centuries. Seen through the eyes of vintage postcards, this new book features a history of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio. Captured here in over 200 vintage images is the development of this quintessential Midwest town, from its origins as a rural farming region to the prosperous community it is today. Following the experiences and correspondence of Findlay's visitors and residents, readers will witness almost first-hand the trials and tribulations of the city's inhabitants at the turn of the century, including images of its thriving downtown, lost buildings, furious storms, and developing industries.

Elyria was settled on the Black River near two 40-foot waterfalls, which aided milling operations and encouraged industry. Its proximity to Lake Erie further promoted travel and trade. Elyria in Vintage Postcards picks up Elyria's history 90 years after her founding in 1817, when postcards were all the rage. This fashionable mode of communication resulted in the preservation of these images of historic Elyria. This book will take you on a tour of the town through vintage postcards. Visit Elyria's now-defunct movie theaters and hotels during their prime. View Black River bridges, old mills, and an early hydroelectric plant. Discover buildings that were destroyed by fire, bridges destroyed by flood, train wrecks, and devastating snowstorms. And take a rare peek inside Elyria's early businesses, schools, and churches.