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PHOTOGRAPHY SURVEYS | COLLECTIONS | MOVEMENTS | EXHIBITIONS

PUBLISHER
MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 8.5 x 9.5 in. / 304 pgs / 340 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2022 p. 34   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780878468843 TRADE
List Price: $45.00 CAD $61.00 GBP £36.00

AVAILABILITY
In stock

TERRITORY
WORLD

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, 03/16/22–07/25/22

THE FALL 2025 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. CATALOG

Artbook | D.A.P. Catalog Cover Link
Preview our FALL 2025 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
  

MFA PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

Real Photo Postcards

Pictures from a Changing Nation

By Lynda Klich and Benjamin Weiss. Contributions by Eric Moskowitz, Jeff L. Rosenheim, Annie Rudd, Christopher B. Steiner, Anna Tome.

Real Photo Postcards

Postcards of a nation embracing a new democratic technology

The ubiquity of photography and social media today makes it hard to imagine a time when it was not possible for ordinary people to take their own pictures and send them with short messages over long distances. But it was revolutionary when the Eastman Kodak Company, in 1903, unveiled a new postcard camera that produced a postcard-size negative that could print directly onto a blank card. Suddenly almost anyone, amateurs and entrepreneurial photographers alike, could take a picture—of neighbors at home and at work, local celebrations, newsworthy disasters, sightseeing trips—and turn it into a postcard.
This book captures this moment in the history of communications—from around 1900 to 1930—through a generous selection of what came to be known as “real photo postcards” from the extensive Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive. As the formality of earlier photography falls away, these postcards remind us that the past was occupied by people with distinct and individual stories, dramatic, humorous, puzzling and surprising.


Featured image is reproduced from 'Real Photo Postcards'.

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

The New York Times Book Review

Lucy Sante

Beautifully lucid, among the finest published collections thus far...serves up a panoramic view of the United States in the early 20th century.

Real Photo Postcards

in stock  $45.00


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FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/4/2022

The great American journey, captured in 'Real Photo Postcards'

The great American journey, captured in 'Real Photo Postcards'

Featured postcards—captioned “Seen in Chinatown, 1912 or later,” “Swimmers at Saltair, 1918” and “Man and woman in an automobile, 1918”—are reproduced from Real Photo Postcards: Pictures from a Changing Nation, published to accompany the exhibition of early twentieth-century American postcards from the Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive currently on view at MFA Boston. “What attracted me most to U.S. real photos, and changed my collecting journey forever, was the thrill I got that realizing that everyone who had their picture taken for a postcard became a part of the great American journey,” Lauder writes. “Yes, these cards witness patriotism in times of war and exhilarating phases of the nation’s growth. But just as important for me, they reveal quieter daily moments that, without these cards, would have been lost to history, like parades and union picnics; the pride many individuals took in their work tools and in the new uniforms worn as a fireman or policeman; the economic mobility shown in someone’s crisp and stylish new Sunday best; and the heroic efforts of a community coming together to clean up after a flood or tornado.” continue to blog


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