County Seat Newspaper
of Clare County

Linen Postcards are the Overlooked Collectible

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Linen postcards from the  1930s and 1940s was something I had largely overlooked in collecting and researching Clare County.  So many are available and at an inexpensive price they didn't seem that important.   Most are not actual local scenes but generic lake and landscape tourist scenes.   Since they weren't actual local images I hadn't collected or researched them. 

Many linen cards were made by Curt Teich & Co, Inc. .  Since these cards were mass produced and there are so many of them a high percentage are mailed and contain a lot of genealogical and first-person  information of the subject.   If the card is mailed the postmark date can provide information and luckyily with a large company like Curt Teich & Co, Inc. they had their own system of coding and dating postcards.  (https://www.newberry.org/sites/default/files/researchguide-attachments/Teich_Postcard_Dating_Guide_2016.pdf )

I was particulary gratefull to be able to date the linen Teich card that is stamped on the back SPIKE HORN CREEK CAMP BEAR DEN. The card is from the 1930s so we can see what ol' Spikehorn was up to and how he represented his busienss during this time.  The scene with this stamp on the back is an inland water scene and probably a set of cards he bought for resale were that were not personalized.   This particular card was produced in 1934 and of course it could have been for sale for many years at Spikehorn's tourist camp.  

Purchasing and studying some of these inexpensive pieces of local history, while not direct images of Clare county, are still important pieces of our history.  

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