Documents and records of our ancestors are vital to what we do as genealogists. But it can also provide some perspective to find images to help tell the story of our ancestor's lives. One way to do this can be by using vintage postcards.
You can find vintage postcards that depict almost all aspects of a place and sometimes events. Postcards of churches exist that can help you illustrate your family history narrative.
The New York Public Library Digital Gallery has many great images spanning all types of mediums. One collection is the Detroit Publishing Company Postcards from the Leonard Lauder Postcard Collection. According to the Collection homepage, "The Detroit Publishing Company was one of the largest American publishers of postcards and photographic views during the early decades of the 20th century. This digital collection represents a portion of a larger collection, totaling 14,500 postcards, donated to the Library in 1986 by Leonard Lauder, executive, philanthropist, and art collector. According to The New York Times, Mr. Lauder began collecting postcards at the age of 6. Today he continues to collect at the rate of some 1,000 postcards per year-for "the pleasure of discovery, and once discovered, the pleasure of preservation."
You can conduct a keyword search on this specific collection. A search on the word "church" results in 124 hits for churches in various states.
Be considerate of copyright restrictions. Remember to consult the library/archive or the website before you use any image in a narrative that you will be publishing in any format.
1 comment:
That is good info to know! Thanks for posting!
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