An offering of vintage holiday images.
Rural Letter Carrier’s Christmas Card
Smithsonian Institution on The Commons (Flickr)
“Description: Christmas postcard from Pittstown, New Jersey rural carrier John S. MacIlroy to William Taylor dated December 21, 1915. The back of the postcard has a printed five stanza poem titled “If” that includes the verse, “when packages due don’t come on time / And those who are sending don’t raise their sign / it sure would save anxiety / if I knew you and you knew me.” Many rural letter carriers left holiday postcards for their patrons, though few went as far as Mr. MacIlroy in creating specialty cards such as this one. Fortunately for MacIlroy, he remembered to place a stamp on this postcard. Carriers who simply placed postcards in their patrons’ mailboxes without stamps were subject to disciplinary measures for misuse of the mailbox.”
Father Christmas promotes Whitcombe & Tombs, 1886
The National Library of NZ on The Commons (Flickr)
Whitcombe & Tombs, Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, Cashel St, Christchurch, 1886, Lithograph
“The 1880s saw an increase in the use of illustration and colour. This delightful image is the earliest advertisement in the Ephemera Collection to show the figure of Father Christmas. The little fliers or signs fluttering around advertise the products and processes offered by this printing company: handpainted Christmas cards, picture books, hand painted pocket books, Christmas cards of New Zealand scenery, photographic albums, purses, gold and silver pencil cases.”
Vader en kind met kerstboom
Father and child with Christmas tree
National Archives of the Netherlands on The Commons (Flickr)
Yuletide: silhouette of father and son who walk the streets in the dark with newly purchased Christmas tree, [1949]. Haarlem, Damstraat. (Google translation)
No known copyright restrictions on any of these images.
