The reconstruction of this website was completed in December
2005. The renewed website was officially launched at a
joint powerpoint presentation by Russ Powers and Ken Elder
to the Dundas Valley Historical Society on Wednesday, January 11.
Russ presented a slide show of a selection of his own collection
while Ken focused on a particular type of postcard created by the
hand-printing of negatives directly onto postcard-size photographic
paper. known as real
photo postcards. Visit Russ Powers' website to
view his postcard collection in a
slide
show. Background on the Museum's collection is provided in
the Archives section. Directly below are
two new postcard acquisitions by Ken Elder (not yet entered into
the database).
St.
James Presbyterian Church was built in 1909 and originally
stood at the south-west corner of Locke and Herkimers streets
in south-west Hamilton. In 1920 it became St. Joseph's R.C.
school and by 1958 all vestiges of the church building had
disappeared. This is a hand-coloured postcard published by
Rumsey & Co. in
Toronto (p.u. 1911).
According to Ken Elder, this
is an exceedingly rare postcard showing the earliest buldings
of the Canadian Westinghouse Company, established in 1898 to
produce air-brakes for the railway industry (located in north-east
Hamilton). It is a real photo postcard (probably G.E. Thompson)
using an unknown printing-out paper (p.u. 1906).
Article published in the Fall Newsletter 2003 of the Dundas Historical
Society Museum
by Ann Gillespie, ACO Hamilton Region Branch member and Dundas
resident
I was excited to recently find out that the Museum possessed a
substantial collection of historic postcards stored in envelopes
in two file boxes. As I systematically looked through these boxes,
I was amazed to discover so many postcards of high photographic
quality, documenting streetscapes, buildings, people and events
in Dundas during the early 20th century. Over the past year I have
been working under the auspices of the Hamilton Region Branch of
the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario on the creation of a website
with a searchable database for historic postcards of the Hamilton
area. The majority of the images initially incorporated into the
website database are being scanned from the sizeable collection
of Ottawa resident Ken Elder. Having grown up in Hamilton, Ken
has always had a special interest in postcards of this area and
to date has close to 1500 (of a total number in excess of 25,000).
I recently showed Ken a sampling of about 3O individual cards
and one postcard folder of 9 postcards from the Museum’s
collection. In his expert opinion, many of the postcards may be
quite rare and hence, particularly valuable from a collector’s
standpoint. This is especially true of the real photo (black-and-white
photograph) postcards, which make up a large proportion of the
Museum’s
collection. These postcards were actually issued by amateur and
professional photographers rather than large publishing companies
like W.G. MacFarlane (Toronto) or Valentine & Sons Publishing
Co. (Toronto and Montreal). According to Ken, this practice began
as early as 1902, when the Eastman Kodak Company took advantage
of the booming international postcard fad by issuing a photographic
postcard stock on which images could be contact printed directly
from negatives (postcard size or smaller). In 1903, Eastman Kodak
introduced its first postcard format camera and in 1904 its popular
Azo postcard stock, identified by the trademark printed on the
postcard back: the letters A Z O defining the four sides of a square
in the upper right corner where the stamp was to be affixed. The
Museum’s
collection contains a large proportion of Azo postcards, which
can be readily identified by the visible trademark because virtually
none are stamped. For more background on real photo postcards,
see Real Photo Postcard Terms.
While vast numbers of real photo postcards would have been produced
in the early twentieth century, large quantities of any single
image were not usually made by private photographers. The surviving
examples, therefore, could be one of a kind or only a few. This
type of postcard (often depicting local events like parades, games,
fairs, etc.) was particularly common in small towns like Dundas.
Postcards produced by local photographers were often commissioned
and sold by local storekeepers, such as W.H. Ralph (Ralph’s
Drugs) in Dundas.
Relatively few postcards of villages and small towns were issued
by the large publishing companies, which preferred generic views
that could be re-issued over a period of time, often with colour
and design variations. For example, Valentines & Sons
produced a relatively small number, but very striking, coloured
postcards of Dundas based on well-known or particularly scenic
views, such as Webster’s Falls, Fisher’s
Mill, King Street and the Market Square. They may be found today
in numerous collections because the individual postcards were issued
in such large quantities. Councillor Russ Powers owns a number
of Valentine & Sons’ postcards of
Dundas (including the above) which can be viewed on his own website.
Just added to the database of this website is a selection of about
40 postcards owned by the Dundas Historical Museum, including
the two reproduced here. It is hoped that the entire collection
will be added as a future project. What a wonderful way to promote
public awareness of just one of the museum’s
many treasures and encourage more people to visit the museum and
discover its rich resources first hand!
Azo postcard
(postally unused) showing the Grafton & Co. clothing
store, office and warehouse at the coner of King & Ogilivie,
Dundas. The photograph was taken after the original corner
building (erected in 1853) was completely remodeled in the
1920s. Grafton’s
closed in 1997 and the site was redeveloped in the 1990s
as Grafton Square.
Azo postcard
(postally unused) showing the residence built for W.A. Davidson
in 1890. The one-story Ontario cottage, though considerably
altered, is still standing at 157 Melville Street, Dundas.
The photograph, published in Picturesque Dundas (1896;
reprinted in 1972 and 2005), was later printed on postcard
stock (no earlier than 1904).
Background on Advertising Postcards
To date, approximately 50 postcards in the advertising
category have been entered in the database, all from Ken Elder's
collection. They fall into three categories, which you will find
in the drop-down PUBLISHER menu on the Search page: Pictorial Advertising
on Official Postal Stationary, Pictorial Advertising on Unofficial "Private
Postards" and Pictorial Advertising on Unofficial "Post
Cards". To display thumbnails of the postcards in all three
categories, click-on the term advertising cards in the SUBJECT
menu. It should be noted that this category excludes the postcards
depicting business premises on the front with advertising restricted
to the back.
Example of Pictorial Advertising on Unofficial 'Post Cards'
(FRONT AND BACK)
Pictorial advertising for Balfour,
Smye & Co. on the
front with written advertising for Kerr & Bird, a distributor
in Wingham, Ontario, on the back. Balfour, Smye
& Co. were wholesale and manufacturing grocers, located
at 72 MacNab Street North in a stone commercial terrace.To display all of the advertising cards entered into the
database, select advertising cards from
the SUBJECT menu (Search page). To locate this postcard,
also enter "Tartan Tea" into
the KEYWORD field.
Background on Valentine and Sons
To date, close to 100 postcards published
by four Canadian branches of Valentine and Sons Ltd. have been
entered into the database. The total number of Valentine poscards
in Ken Elder's collection with subjects relating to the Hamilton
area is approximately 250, all of which have been digitized and
will progressively be added to the database. The original firm,
Valentine & Sons of Dundee (Scotland), printed its first postcards
in 1898. Canadian production began between 1903 and 1906 with offices
established first in Montreal and then Toronto. The earliest Canadian
postcards published by Valentine and Sons were monotone black,
collotype views showing the scenery along the main line of the
Canadian Pacific Railway north of Lake Superior and in the Rocky
Mountains. The earliest postcards produced for the Hamilton market
(100,573 and 100,587-100,594) were also monotone black. The earliest
known postally-used card is the one below
numbered 100,592 and dated 13 April 1906.
"The Beach, Hamilton" View from the chimney of the Hamilton Radial Electric Power
House, looking south towards the Burlington Canal (marked
by piers and lighthouse), with Lake Ontario to the east and
Hamilton Harbour to the west.
This divided
back design with “CANADIAN POST CARD.” in
light Roman lettering over a divided single line “T” was
one of several designs produced between 1903 and 1906.
