Do People Who Go On Holiday,

still send postcards?

A Carload of Mammoth Naval Oranges from CA, Edward H. Mitchell, San Francisco 1909, it seems that as America fell in love with rail travel in the early 20th century, it almost became de rigueur to send the folks at home a fantastical card of the places and produce of where they visited, 

Carload of Mammoth Strawberries from Southern Pacific. c. 1910 Edward H. Mitchell, San Francisco, many of these cards were the work of Edward Henry Mitchell, while this type of fantasy image can easily be done in Photoshop today, Mitchell made them the old-fashioned way, in his photo shop in San Francisco,

The Kind of Parsnips We Raise in Oradell NJ. Ann Arbor, postmarked 1915, as it happens they were easy to produce, cut out say a railway wagon or truck with another cut out of the fruit or produce on top and take a photograph of the collage, these templates would be offered to various businesses, governments, and Chambers of Commerce, and their name or location added before printing mass quantities, ridiculously large produce shipments were just a small part of Mitchell's postcard business, His business published at least 4,000 designs between 1898 and 1915, as it happens there is a article about Mitchell here, and to look at more fantastical fruit and veg have a look here.