Tracking Down A Particular Card

Is there a trick or search procedure for tracking down the availability of a particular picture post card from about 1906?

What details about a card are searchable. Manufacturer and card number? Subject matter? I'm finding you can waste a lot of time by trying to guess.

How does one go about it?

Search for what it is that makes the card that you're searching for unique, is all I can offer.

There are dedicated archives for a few of the publishers; are you lucky enough to be looking for a Tuck or Teich?

Essayk, have you tried Delcampe? They have a fantastic postcard section.

Peter

essayk

At the risk of giving you information about which you're probably well aware, I find this site helpful for background information. Perhaps ikeyPikey writes it ...

http://www.metropostcard.com/publisherst.html

Geoff

Essayk: you do know that all you have to do is post 'XYZ might as well not exist' and your dare will likely bear fruit, right?

GeoffHa: Alan did one hellacious job on that site, did he not?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I found the site by accident whilst Googling - it's brilliant.

Geoff

Thanks guys for the tips and the great link. This may be tougher than I thought, since all I have is a pic of the view side of the card with no logo for the publisher. So I don't know who produced it or when. It seems to have been offset printed, and I suspect it was hand tinted. Here is the card:





The caption reads, "Edward Steinemeyer, the oldest resident in Mercer County"

FWIW - The scene is in North Dakota not far from Stanton, ND some time in the first decade of the 20th century. The actual card for this pic is in a public museum and not available. I am looking into contacting the museum for a publisher attribution and/or a look at the reverse (doubt they would scan it).

But if that doesn't pan out, I'm really not sure how to proceed.

Edit. - A tad more information:

Publisher of Original R. J. Woods (Stanton, N.D.)

Place of Publication Stanton (N.D.)

Transcription "This is grand fathers home and part of his fally too try to find me on this card and the rest of them are his dorters and his brothe law too. Ralph Loy." - handwritten on back of postcard, no postmark. Addressed to Molter Loy, 3425 Oaklund Ave, Minneapolis, Minn .
"No. AA1101" - printed on back of postcard.

Notes: Title printed on front of postcard.
Photographer unknown.


Maybe a clue in the style of the ID number as noted above?
R.J. Woods sounds like a local distributor, or possibly the photographer, despite the museum notes. The quality of the card does not look like a local job as a "Real photo" might be.