Even with smart phones and their ability to snap a photo and send it back home, post cards are still found in gift stores along Fremont Street and the Las Vegas Strip.
The messages haven’t changed; “Look where I am” and “wish you were here.”
For decades post cards were king. In the golden age of post cards, Billions, yes Billions were sold each year in the United States.
The earliest form of Twitter, as you could only write so many words on the back of the post card.
In the beginning, the U.S. Post Office forbid writing on the back of the post car; except the address.
So you squeezed your message, a few words around the edges of the front of the card.
Then in 1902 Great Britain allowed its citizens to write a message on the left side of the back of the post card.
Five years later the U.S. Post Office made the change.
For Las Vegas, post cards continues record to development and changes of the community, from a railroad stop and farms to the growing and constantly changing hospitality industry.
In many cases, the early days, pre Hoover Dam era, post cards are often the only visual history of the development of southern Nevada that has survived.
In this the first of several stories on post cards and the history of southern Nevada, we focus on one giant post card company, Curt Teich of Chicago.
Not the first to provide a visual glimpse of Las Vegas to the outside world, but for several decades Teich dominated the market place.