Hamburg 09

Hamburg Postcards

A Railroad Ticket to Hamburg postmarked 1916 is a good example of a pennant postcard. The name of the village was printed in a pennant, and some kind of catchy phrase or saying accompanied the pennant. The scene was not necessarily from the named area. You could have seen this same card in 1916 with Somewhere, Tennessee printed on it.

C. L. Bowman & Co. Hamburg. Though not a postcard, this tradecard advertises Candee’s Rubber Boots and Shoes, sold at Bowman and Co in Hamburg. The card is a novelty puzzle card, divided into three sections with a different face on each. The faces fold down in the center to show a different face with varied expressions or features, so that many different facial combinations could be created.

Victorian trade cards were popular in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s in the United States. They were small cards given by businesses to clients and customers for advertising, and became a popular collector’s item, often saved in scrapbooks.