Girls and Buoys 1905 Postcard

Pretty likely, the women standing on the giant buoy in this 1906-era picture were not actually at sea. Even before Photoshop, our ancestors were pretty clever. In fact, they were exactly as smart as we are, even smarter if you’re talking politics. They had technology, too, lots of it, although theirs was bigger and clunkier. That cleverness is evident in penny postcards.

I’ve had this old card (on the left) for ages. The bottom reads “Girl and B(u)oy on the New Hampshire Coast.” Punny. The more it makes you wince, the better. “PU,” my father used to say, “two-thirds of a pun.” Similar cards, like the one for Boston Harbor, are ubiquitous.

Note that the artist swapped models and backgrounds. The waves splashing onto the giant metal buoy are clearly painted in. The image is likely assembled from a photograph shot on dry land, then cut-and-pasted, airbrushed, and colorized. The one I have wasn’t mailed until 1914, so this image likely had a long, profitable run.

It is all the work of German-born entrepreneur Curt Otto Teich (1877 – 1974), who ran a successful printing company in Chicago. If you’ve seen vintage postcards with big letters that say “Greetings From,” it was likely a Curt Teich & Company card. Many of these were printed in Germany. Mine was distributed by Hugh C. Leighton Co. of Portland, Maine.

If you’re interested, don’t miss the Curt Teich Postcard Archives Collection (CTPAC). It is archived at the Newberry, a world-renowned independent research library in Chicago. Founded in 1877, this hip library has a website, a blog, a newsletter, and even a podcast. Their collection includes over half a million postcards from the Curt Teich company. You can view many items online.

Besides travel images from around the world, the Teich company produced comic and racy cards, some highly racist and sexist by modern standards. Teich grew wealthy, pioneered the use of the offset printing press, and employed hundreds of traveling salesmen who sold up to a quarter million cards annually. As the “Picture Postcard King,” Teich’s brilliantly colored images had a powerful impact on American pop culture. They told generations of Americans where to go, what to see, and what was funny.

Copyright J. Dennis Robinson