Two More Almost Twins

These two post cards look very much alike. The picture is the same. It certainly doesn’t look like the same picture, but it is. Only the colors are different. Starting at the left, bottom of the card we see that the number of the trolley is the same; in the left it is green and in the right it is brown. The same lady in the same pose is wearing two colors in the left and only blue on the right. Her gentleman friend is wearing a white or yellow hat, depending on which card you choose to look at. The lady in the bottom right has also changed outfits. She is in the same position but wearing two different outfits. Her hat hasn’t changed shape but, it, too, has changed colors. In the middle of the card the car on the incline has not moved; that must have made it easier to change the paint scheme from pink to white!

Of course, all they have done here is use the same black and white photograph and when it was sent off to the lithographer, adjust the color on its second trip.

The card on the right is the original use of the photo. It is from the times when you could only write an address on the back of the card (top scan of these two backs).

There is a rubber stamp in the bottom right hand corner that says it was received (it doesn’t say from where or where it was received) on June 13, 1908. It was published by the Adolph Selige Company, which had offices in St. Louis, Leipzig and Berlin. According to the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York, the Adolph Selige Company was a “publisher of predominantly mid-Western view-cards, humor, and images of Western themes. They also produced a variety of scenes for other publishers under the trade name Seliochrom.”

The card on the left (bottom scan of these two backs) is from a later time period. It is from between 1907 and 1915. This is known as the divided back era. This was the first time that the writer of the post card could add a message. The back was divided into two segments; the message could go on the left and the address was written on the right side. This post card is from the Newman Post Card Company which began in 1907 – just after the divided back era began. Also from the Metropolitan Postcard Club: “A publisher and printer of lithographic postcards, mostly views of southern California, with some cards of Hawaii and Nevada and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. They were related to the O. Newman Company and were acquired by H.S. Crocker in the 1960’s.” Despite being centered in Los Angeles, California, this post card was also printed in Germany.