Another E. H. Mitchell

We are continuing the theme of exaggerated food, etc. on the front of the post cards. Last week I published a post card from E. H. Mitchell that was printed when only the address was allowed to be written on the back of the post card.

This week, things have progressed. This post card comes from the Divided Back Era of post cards (1907 - 1915). It was actually mailed on August 10, 1910. It shows an entire car overfilled with giant Navel Oranges. The quote on the front says, "A CARLOAD OF NAVEL ORANGES FROM ______" You get to send the post card back to your home town to show them where you are visiting and how wonderfully the fruits in the region grow. The writer of this post card chose not to do that.
The copyright on the post card is 111 years old.

You can find this segment of the post card in the upper left-hand corner of the post card. It is very hard to see. I had to enhance the picture when I scanned it.

You can see here that the address is on the right-hand side and the message is on the left. Compare this to last week's post card. You will see the message at the very bottom of the post card: "Hows this for melons? Roy" Once the United States approved the divided back post card, sales soared and so the Postal Service made quite the income - even at only one cent per card - as people sent more and more post cards through the mail. A great business decision.

Too Big for Reality

In October of 2015 I posted a picture of soon-to-be President Taft on the back platform of a train surrounded by very large fruits and vegetables. That was not the only picture of exaggerated sizes of edibles in my collection. I have about 60 of these types of pictures on the front of the post cards. This next series will be an expose (with very little description) of these postcards. Many of them are similar or the same pictures so I will not bore you with all 60 post cards.

Today's offering (mailed on May 6, 1907) comes to us courtesy of Edward H. Mitchell from San Francisco. You will see his name and the fact that this comes from San Francisco, California in the bottom, left-hand corner.

He was born April 27, 1867 in San Francisco - died from a heart attack in Palo Alto, California on October 24, 1932 The information below was taken from this website: http://www.thepostcard.com/walt/pub/ehm/chklst/ehmlife.pdf
Edward H. Mitchell, of San Francisco. Most of his postcards are about the West, he was very prolific, and his cards have great color for the time they were created. There are postcards being republished with other publishing companies that Mitchell owned or was a partner in, Pacific Novelty Co. and Souvenir Publishing Co. Mitchell rode the rails, which makes sense in his era. I am sure that he created many postcards about the railroads in exchange for discounted travel. I believe that is where the saying “The road of a thousand Wonders” which appears on many cards came from. Mitchell also was willing to have artists paint hats on people, he loved hats, and add other eye candy to sell postcards. At one point he was even putting sparkle on cards. All postcards printed after 1908 proudly proclaim 'Printed in the United States' on their backside. Edward H. Mitchell gave up postcard publishing around 1923. Edward H. Mitchell was one of the earliest and most prolific postcard publishers in the United States, and he was a San Franciscan. Cards bearing his name as publisher have been used, collected and studied since the end of the nineteenth century – the dawn of the Golden Age of Postcards. Several extensive checklists running to over three thousand entries have been compiled and updated. Mitchell published very early cards – colored vignettes – that were printed in Germany. He was publishing undivided back cards from a Post Street address before the earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed his printing operation and much of San Francisco. He continued to work out of his home until he built a plant and warehouse on Army Street. From there he published thousands of divided back cards including many views of San Francisco and the West, series on the Philippines and the Hawaiian Islands, high quality real photo views, comics, artistic designs and a series of early exaggerations of California fruits and vegetables. He printed cards for himself and other publishers, most notably to promote the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. Collectors and researchers of all Mitchell cards cannot help but feel a personal link with the publisher because he identifies himself on each of them as “Edward H. Mitchell”–  not “... Company,” not “... Inc.” just Edward H. Mitchell.” The link to Mr. Mitchell as a person, is however, fragile. While his business has been analyzed and recorded extensively we know little about the man himself. In the 1980s Sam Stark wrote a series of articles for the Golden Gate Post Card Club bulletin on Edward H. Mitchell, His Life and Times that gave much information on his publishing history and contemporaries and a few vital statistics on Mr. Mitchell. Born: San Francisco, April 27, 1867; graduated Lincoln Grammar School 1883; married Idelle Linehan, also a San Francisco native, in 1891; and died October 24, 1932. Mr. Stark, who had become acquainted with the youngest of Mitchell’s children, Allen, put a bit more flesh on these bones, but Edward H. Mitchell was still little more than a name, a few dates and a blurred photocopy of a rotogravure picture.

This is the back of the post card that Mr. Mitchell is offering to us:

Notice that on the back of the post card there is a stamp that says, "FROM THE COLLECTION OF FRANK C. PERREAULT" I did some research to see who this person was. This is what I found in a book called "Coast Guard Combat Veterans: Semper Paratus"

Frank C. Perreault from Warwick, RI. Enlisted in the USCG in December 1941. Boot training at Algiers, LA; sent to a receiving center, University of Chicago, IL. Assigned as a armed guard aboard the SS Thomas Lynch and the SS John Gates, ore boats plying the Great Lakes. Ordered to Quartermaster School, Ellis Island, NY. Assigned to USCG buoy tender, Hyacinth. Transferred to the USCG Mayflower. As a plank owner sailed her to the decommission in Curtiss Bay, MD. Ordered to report to Boston, MA for assignment aboard the USCGC Bibb. Made three weather patrols under Capt. H. Dielh.
Received honorable discharge in 1947 with the rank AM1/c. He is presently retired from the Prudential Insurance Co. He collects USCG and navel covers and post cards, will swap with anyone with same likes.

Still in Arizona with Steam Locomotives

This post card is an image of a locomotive cruising on the main line of the railroad through Crozier Canyon in northwestern Arizona.

Today, you can still take pictures similar to this one (without the steam locomotive, of course). The canyon is still accessible from Route 66. The website: http://www.northamericanrails.com/bnsf_transcon_across_az_seligman_sub/bnsf_-_seligman_sub_-_crozier_area gives you directions of how to get close to the old Santa Fe, now Burlington Northern Santa Fe, main line to take great pictures of trains.

The post card was published by Fred Harvey. He didn't usually print his own cards, but contracted with someone else to do the printing and he distributed them.

In 1878 Fred Harvey was the first to established a chain of restaurants then hotels across the Southwest that provided quality service. Much was done to market the region including publishing large series of postcards depicting Native Americans and local scenery. In 1897 Harvey took over the news stands for the A.T.&S.F. Railroad and began distributing postcards. The Santa Fe Railroad also did a great deal to publicize its Route to the Grand Canyon. A large amount of postcards were produced depicting the canyon and the Railroad’s hotel interests within the National Park. Fred Harvey himself provided some of the images for these cards until his death in 1901. Between 1901 and 1932 the Company contracted all their cards with the Detroit Publishing Company. These cards have an H prefix before their identification number, but in addition Detroit published many of Harvey’s images on their own. After Detroit closed, many of Harvey’s cards were contracted out to Curt Teich among others.

This is the description of what is on the front of the post card, as found at the back-left-top corner of the card. It mentions that the picture was taken at Crozier Canyon in Arizona and we can see that the railway was owned by the Santa Fe by then. It mentions that the canyon lies between Hackberry and Peach Springs.
This is a part of the post card description that I noticed, that got my

hackles up. Then I realized that this post card was from the early twentieth century and decided to use it as a learning experience for myself, and perhaps for you, too. It is the part about "made over into educated citizens" that go to me. It reminds me of a conversation I had with someone who said, basically, that "they deserved to lose the land because they didn't do anything with it."
These people lived in the area for thousands of years in harmony with the land, the climate, the weather, the animals, etc. Look at the names they have given to themselves: The Havasupai people are an American Indian tribe who have lived in the Grand Canyon for at least the past 800 years. Havasu means "blue-green water" and pai "people". The name Hualapai, meaning "people of the tall pines", is derived from hwa:l, the word for ponderosa pine and pai "people". Their traditional territory is a 108-mile (174 km) stretch along the pine-clad southern side of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River with the tribal capital at Peach Springs. Both groups of people lived in such a way on the land that we should have learned from them how to live there, rather than us teaching them how to become "civilized" peoples.

I'm done. I will get off my soap box now.

A Trip to Northern Arizona

As the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) made its way west towards California from Chicago it had to cross through mountain passes and over canyons.

The picture on the front of this post card shows that the Santa Fe successfully made it over Canyon Diablo in northern Arizona. It is located 35 degrees north of the equator and 111 degrees west of the prime meridian. Edmonton, Alberta Canada is located 53 degrees north of the equator and 113 degrees west of the prime meridian; we are almost 1,200 kilometers straight north of this canyon.

The building of this bridge led to the development of a small city on the western edge of the canyon. Originally started by the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, the bridge was put on hold for six months because the company had ordered a bridge of the wrong span length (the mistake was only discovered when the bridge arrived at the canyon) and a new one had to be ordered. However, the building of the railroad continued west while the railroad waited for the bridge. In 1880, a town called Canyon Diablo began as the central location for the railroad workers. The town was connected to Flagstaff, Arizona by stagecoach to facilitate growth and commerce. But, as fate would have it instead saloons, gambling halls, brothels and dance halls made this town their home. Eating establishments, grocery stores and other honest businesses also called Canyon Diablo home. While its residents were mainly employees of the A&P RR, outlaws, gamblers, and prostitutes made their way there, too.

This is from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-canyondiablo/: Within a short time the town had 2,000 residents. A regular stagecoach route from Flagstaff to Canyon Diablo began running and was often the victim of robberies. Within its first year, the town received its first marshal. He was sworn in at 3:00pm, and was being buried at 8:00pm that same night. Five more town marshals would follow, the longest lasting one month, and all were killed in the line of duty. A "Boot Hill" cemetery sprouted up at the end of town, which in less than a decade had 35 graves, all of whom had been killed by way of violent death. The 36th grave was that of former trading post owner Herman Wolfe, who died in 1899, the only one to have died a nonviolent death.

This is a picture of the bridge taken in 2005:

When the railroad bridge was completed, the town quickly died. The original railroad bridge was replaced in 1900 with a new bridge to carry heavier locomotives and cars. By 1903, the only thing remaining in the town was a Navajo trading post. A new double track railroad bridge was completed across the Canyon in 1947. What remains today at Canyon Diablo are a few building foundations, the grave marker and grave of Herman Wolfe, the ruins of the trading post, a railroad siding and a double track railroad bridge.

This is the back of the post card. This tells me that it was printed before March 1, 1907, when people were first allowed to add a message to the back of the post card. Prior to that, only the address could be on the back. If there was going to be a message, it had to be short enough to fit on the front without obstructing the beautiful scene on the front. In fact, I can tell you that this post card was published before 1904. The reason is included below. This post card was published by the Detroit Photographic Co. Originally a printer of religious books and calendars, the Detroit Photographic Company Ltd. shifted production in 1897 when owners William A. Livingstone and Edwin H. Husher saw the potential in postcards. After negotiations with Orell Fussli, Detroit became the sole American company to license the Swiss photochrom process, which they would eventually register in 1907 under the name Phostint. In addition they would also distributed Swiss made prints for Fussli in America. When the well known Western photographer William Henry Jackson joined the company as a partner, he added his thousands of negatives to Livingstone’s collection of Great Lakes imagery and Husher’s photos of California. All this provided a strong foundation to start publishing postcards. Jackson traveled around the United States taking many additional pictures until 1903 when he took over the management of Detroit’s factory. By 1904 as postcards sales increased to 7 million per year they changed their name to the Detroit Publishing Company. They produced postcards on a great variety of subjects but they are best known for their view-cards. The quality of their cards are considered some of the finest produced in America. They also printed many contract cards whose numbers increased as ordinary sales began to fall. Many of their views found on postcards were also produced as larger sized prints. Detroit went into receivership in 1924 but printed contract cards until 1932. The look of these cards changed over the years as the phostint technique was secretly perfected. All their cards were printed in Detroit except for a rare few from Austria and Switzerland.