What's that hole for?

I am taking a little bit of poetic license with this post. I am not going put the post cards up in the order of published first to last so that I can tell a story and hold you in suspense for a short while. The first post card is a picture of a train on a part of the Lucin cut-off. This is the landfill that leads to the trestle that cuts right across the Great Salt Lake. My post previous to this one speaks much more about the cut-off. I will let it rest here.

This post card is from the Linen Card era (1930 – 1945). It was printed by Curt Otto Teich’s company using the “C.T. Art-Colortone” method. In fact, I believe that it was the Curt Teich company under the inventive guidance of Curt Teich, that invented the Linen Card look. This particular card was printed in 1933. You can tell by the number in the bottom right of the card. It is 3A-H214. The A in the number sequence means that it was printed in the 1930s. The 3 prior to the A means that it was in 1933. The H means that it was a Linen Card printed in the Art Colortone method. There were 1656 Linen Cards printed that year. Using interpolation we can surmise that this card was printed around the middle of February in 1933. While it was printed by the Curt Teich Company, it was printed for the Deseret Book Company in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Deseret Book Company emerged from the Deseret News Bookstore and the Deseret Sunday School Union Bookstore in 1919 and formally adopted its name in 1920. Both of these Utah bookstores trace their organizational roots to George Q. Cannon, a Latter-day Saint General Authority. The bookstore is named after "deseret," a word from the Book of Mormon meaning "honeybee". By 1920 a new Deseret Book Company building was constructed in downtown Salt Lake City at site of the present ZCMI Center Mall. Ownership of Deseret Book was split between the Deseret News (70%) and the Deseret Sunday School Union (30%). See the Wikipedia website for more details about this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_Book)

This particular post card has been used. It was mailed on June 21, 1939 from Brantsville, Utah to Chicago, Illinois. The faint message on the back says that the sender is “having a swell time” and that they went swimming in the Great Salt Lake. They are leaving the next day to go across the desert. You can see that there is a hole in the card on the right hand side. This is not a normal phenomenon on a post card. What could it be used for? Let’s look at the next card to find out.

You can clearly see that this card was sold with a little bag of salt attached. The bag is made out of good-quality cotton that is stitched closed across the top. There is another thick thread holding the salt bag to the grommet on the card. The words on the bag are “SALT From Great Salt Lake UTAH “. This card would have cost you extra if you mailed it with the salt bag attached. In the box to indicate where the postage stamp is to be placed, the word say that it only costs a penny to mail but, if the salt bag is attached it will cost you two cents. The senders of the previous card used up a whole three cents to mail theirs, but two cents would have been sufficient in 1939, too. This card was also printed by the Curt Teich Company. The code (also in the bottom right hand corner) indicates that it was printed in the early part of 1930. This is NOT one of the Linen Cards. The code is 68-30. The 30 indicates that the post card was printed in 1930; and, it belongs to the 68th run of that year. The records show that there were 2,934 print runs in 1930 of this numbering system. This card was probably printed very early in January of 1930.

Like the previous card, this, too was printed for the Deseret Book Company. This one, however, acknowledges that the picture is taken along the route of the Southern Pacific Railroad. There is a seal in the bottom left of the back of the card saying so. There is no message on the back of this card. This has allowed us to peak under the postage stamp, so to speak, and see the message about the increased cost in postage if you do not remove the bag of salt prior to sending the card.

It takes a keen eye

So... I flipped the page in my album to see what the next set of post cards will be; surprise! we're still in the Royal Gorge. These two cards are a close-up of the Hanging Bridge - about which I know I have posted in the past (see earlier today).

These two pictures are much clearer than any others I have. As I examine them closer I see that this is because they were printed in 1938. These two cards are from the Linen Card Era. The number in the bottom right hand corner (8A-H192) tells me right away that these cards were printed by Curt Otto Teich's company. The 8A indicates that it was printed in the 1930s (the A tells us that) and specifically in 1938 (th 8 tells us that). The H after the dash indicates that the cards are of the Colortone type that Curt Teich produced. The 192 is an internal information number.
I kept both of them not because one of them is more yellow than the other (although that could be an indicator of a different print run - not just poor storage) but because they are actually from different print runs. Everything on the front is exactly the same (except the yellow hue); but, when you turn them over there is a very clear indicator that they are not from the same print run.

As we turn over the card, they do both look exactly the same. The descriptive words that tell you what is on the front of the cards are the same; the publisher on the left-hand side of the card is the same; the printer the "line" down the middle of the card is the same printer. But, upon closer inspection we see that the words POST CARD are in a different location and in a different font. I believe that the bottom card is older than the top one. When the US Postal Service finally allowed us to send post cards in the mail, the back side was for the address only. Then on March 1, 1907 we were able to put the address and a short message on the same side of the card. The address had to be on the right-hand side of the card and the message on the left. Many, I dare say most, of the post cards of this era remind you of which side which part is allowed. "THIS SIDE FOR ADDRESS ONLY" and "THIS SIDE FOR MESSAGE" are very prominent on the cards in my collection. It looks like this card has a bit of a carry-over from that era.

The other indicator that these are two print runs is that the name of the publisher, Curt Otto Teich and his patented printing process ("C.T. Art-Colortone")are each printed in the opposite direction on the two cards.

Who is the publisher? you ask. The Deseret Book Company is the official printer and distributor of the Mormon Church print material. The Deseret Book Company is the result of a merger between the Deseret News Bookstore and the Deseret Sunday School Union Bookstore in 1919 and formally adopted its name in 1920. They can both trace their organizational roots to George Q. Cannon, a Latter-day Saint General Authority. The bookstore is named after "deseret," a word from the Book of Mormon meaning "honeybee".