A Postal Curiousity, Circa 1908

While sharing a vintage photo in a philatelic forum may constitute avocational synesthesia, I'm pleased to present a photo of Mr. & Mrs. White, original recipients of the subject item:



The little girl in the center rear is my wife's grandmother.

I collect 'Miniature Views' and Bloom Brothers was one of the larger producers of these souvenir items.






Many of these eventually made their way to full sized postcards; here is a new pack of 25 full size post cards from Bloom Brothers.



They originally targeted Western national parks souvenir shops with various novelties, miniature views, and postcards. Many of the novelties were made 'mailable' and included items like the little mail bag shown by the original poster. Around 1935, Bloom Brothers started heavily marketing and selling Native America souvenir items. These were targeted at retail shops close to tourist attractions.


Bloom Brothers was founded in 1902 and is still in business today selling this kind of tourist merch (some would call it cheap exploitive crap). For example, here is a page from one of their current catalogs showing their 'Native American Replicas'.


Don

Since you brought up Native Americans, this souvenir, hardly PC by today's standards (another reason to simply just appreciate it), is a small mailable box with an image of Sitting Bull on its cover. Inside, the image perched on the night pot has its face replaced with a mirror so the recipient would become part of the action, as it were...

The vast majority of the mailing tags used for these souvenirs were manufactured by the Dennison Company (scusi the poor image quality...I'll replace it with a better scan later).

Real nice show and tell guys. Really appreciated the sharing. Enjoyable!

Imagine trying to send that through the post today.

"Scientific" research on what will and will not make it through the mails:
https://www.improbable.com/airchive...tal-6-4.html

Have a mailbag but it has not been used.......Iron City Mi.
I do have a neat set of postcards packed like a stamp booklet.....you separate each to send. They are from France and show different views of Verdun damage during ww1.
Also this wood postcard from Chicago Expo, picture of Shedd Aquarium on front.




But the weirdest thing I ever sent through the mail was an MRE entre' from Tabuk AB during Iraqi war. The newer MRE's come in small thin boxes packed in the brown plastic, so you just take one of the boxes out, write free in corner, slap on address, and ship it out!! That way the wife could share part of our yummy meals!

Very educational thread! Thanks to all for contributing.