Hitting the open road and the family vacation were part of the 20th century American social landscape. Whether it was grandparents taking a grand driving tour of natural and historical settings during the early years of American auto-touring or servicemembers taking in the sights during R&R while stationed out west, the much-lauded (almost to a cliche) packing of the family into a giant fortress of a station wagon or friends heading out on an impromptu trip across country after high school graduation, such trips were milestone events in American life. Our focus on the “vintage itinerary” began when we accumulated stacks of old accordion postcard folders, once ubiquitous often photo-illustrated summaries of landmark places. But as we broadened our treasure hunts into estate sales and flea markets, we began to come across stacks of guidebooks, slim historical fold-outs and magazines, full-color pamphlets and 2-sided thick card advertisements for places and sites, along with of course: maps by the score. We began to see the patterns. Here we would find a series of such items that mark a dozen pins along the northwest coast, another that seemed to track across the Plains to Mountain West Nat’l Parks. Here was a whole bin full of hand-outs and postcards from Revolutionary War historic sites, a bundle of items related to Chicago night life, the same for outdoor recreation in the Ozarks, beachcombing along the Florida panhandle, etc. etc. We were following the support material from so many 20th century journeys around the country that we began to dream up the vacations and road trips these folks might have taken, the itineraries of these vintage items guiding the way.

And with that, we present our V I P — Vintage Itinerary Packs — thick themed bundles that bring to life past journeys across the vast American landscape.