THE SOUTH. Accordion Postcard Set Folder, Souvenir, National Park, c. 1940s.
“Chattanooga, the Hustling Metropolis of the Great Tennessee Valley,” sets the tone for this wide-ranging postcard set. Part city boosterism (including many city and municipal views) and part tourist pitch given the city’s unique natural and historical significance, the set’s highlights include an array of mountaintop views: from Point Park, the famous Umbrella and Sunset rock formations, Mocassin Bend in the Tennessee River directly below, as well as Civil War history sites The Cravens House and Garrity’s Battery up on Lookout’s peak … 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 late 1930s when these fold-out mailers gained brilliant color. From the 1940s through 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 wildly diverse sites and attractions 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: In solid shape for its age. The vivid greens indicative of Chattanooga in spring and summer still leaps off the cards. There is only some minor edge-wear on the covers. The set itself was never mailed (though it would have only cost the sender 1 1/2¢ to do so!)]
Condition: Used Very Good. Local / Regional Attractions. Dimensions: 6.25" wide x 4.25" high
