1962 Curt Teich Postcard
There is going to be a lot of celebrating at the Curt Teich
Postcard Archives this year. Thirty
years ago five tractor trailer trucks delivered a small mountain of postcards
and material related to their production to the Archives Building at the Lake
County Discovery Museum over a five day period. This material was the
industrial archives of the Curt Teich Company which had been in business in
Chicago since the turn of the century and had ceased operation just a few years
earlier. Once the material was sorted and rehoused, the immense task of
cataloging hundreds of thousands of images began. By the mid-1980s word was spreading that
there was an amazing 20th century visual document collection housed
in a refurbished farmhouse in the middle of a forest preserve somewhere near
Chicago, Illinois. With its reputation
growing, the Curt Teich Postcard Archives began accepting research requests
from historians, scholars, designers and others interested in the visual story
of the first three quarters of the twentieth century.
By the beginning of the 1990s with the bulk of the Curt
Teich postcards cataloged the decision was made to build the Teich Archives by
accessioning other postcard collections. Today the Curt Teich Postcard Archives holds a
number of other significant postcard collections: The Detroit Publishing Company, The John High
Collection, Fort Sheridan Collection, William O. Field Collection, the
Schmalgemeier Century of Progress Collection, James R. Powell Route 66 Collection,
V. O. Hammon Collection, and a number of small, significant collections and
postcard albums. Because of its vast and varied holdings and stellar reputation
for over three decades, picture researchers from across the country and around
the world contact the Curt Teich Postcard Archives for their vintage image
needs.
Join in our year-long celebration by following us on Twitter
and Facebook and by reading my weekly blog posts. That’s where you’ll learn about the special
events we have planned for National Postcard Week, May 6-12, 2012. There are also plans in the works for a big
celebration in October at the Lake County Discovery Museum so stay tuned for
more information as it becomes available.
What’s the best way to celebrate postcards? Keep the art of postcard writing alive by
sending one to someone you love or start a postcard correspondence with a special
child in your life. Want to make new friends?
Check out the Postcrossing website and send a postcard to a stranger in
a faraway land. Everybody loves to get
postcards in the mail!
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