ATLANTIC SOUTH.
Accordion Postcard Set Folder, Souvenir, c. 1930s.
(This postcard folder ships for free inside a rigid Ultra•Pro® toploader to protect it during shipping.)
All of the postcard sets that we come across from the popular era of this souvenir’s distribution are, without question, part boosterism. This set falls into a more colonial version of such promotion. Though Cuban culture itself is documented and even celebrated, it is clear that this is a promotion for Cuba (then a U.S. protectorate) as “western world playground.” Tobacco and pineapple plantations are lumped in as simple “lovelies” akin to the, then, new Presidential Palace, the National Casino, and the Rancho Boyeros Airport. But it must be said, this accordion postcard folder set may be the finest we have ever seen, condition-wise. The vibrant illustrative visuals, if more colonial in subject than not, still jump off these cards: the U.S.S. Maine Memorial, The Playa, the Zoo (a card with an uncharacteristic error in the printing, being slightly off color-to-color), etc. etc. It seems to us that this set could have been printed and bought yesterday, it has been so well preserved … Postcard accordion folders became ubiquitous in step with the popularity of motorized tourist travel. The first postcard folders trace to the early 20th-century. But it was in the mid-1930s when these fold-out mailers gained brilliant color. From that point through into the 1960s, and by way of far-flung post offices the nation over, a flood of these postcard folders found their way to friends and family from tourists taking in the diverse sites and attractions all across North America. The sharp commercial-art style illustration indicative of mid-century America, with covers printed on a tough linen paper, makes the souvenir sets of especially the late 1930s-1950s pop over half a century later—full-color photographs having arrived to these postcard folders by the 1960s … [Condition: Aside from a slightly bent cover corner, this postcard set, including the cover and its interior 18 cards, are in “Like New” condition. It is remarkable, considering it is easily 80 years old. It seems to us that this postcard folder may have been bought and put immediately in a drawer c. 1939-40, where it remained until we acquired it.]
Condition: Used Very Good.
Local / Regional Areas.
Dimensions: 6.25" wide x 4.25" high
