THE FILE 360,000 postcard images dated from 1893-1978, most in color.

OVERVIEW Curt Teich Postcard Archives: The largest public collection of postcards and related materials in North America. The core collection consists of the industrial archives of the Curt Teich Company of Chicago, which operated from 1898 to 1978 as the world’s largest printer of view and advertising postcards. The company saved examples of every image printed, as well as the original production materials for each postcard. The collection consists of more than 360,000 cataloged images, 1893 to 1978, relating to 10,000 towns and cities primarily in the United States and Canada and more than 87 foreign countries.

OTHER COLLECTIONS John High: Pre-World War I postcards including the four seasons and twelve months, Alice in Wonderland, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Art Nouveau, romance, jigsaw puzzle cards, alphabets and numbers. V.O. Hammon: View and advertising postcards of midwestern cities and towns between 1900 and the early 1920s. William O. Field: Steamships, railroads, world travel-related images, pre-World War I European politics. Schmalgemeier Century of Progress: Three thousand postcards of the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair. Fort Sheridan: Acquired from the museum of the Fort Sheridan Army Base (1887-1993), contains materials relating primarily to World Wars I and II, and postcards of the fort itself. Other: Significant smaller collections include Route 66, the Lincoln Highway, suffragettes, African-American history, fashion, holiday, vintage Santas, genre and patriotic subjects.

SPECIALTIES Historic images of twentieth century life. Vintage postcards chronicling cities and towns, destinations, travel, transportation, social attitudes, the marketplace, family life, fashion, architecture, the changing landscape, design movements, and hundreds of other topics.

GEOGRAPHIC AREAS Strength in United States and North America. Europe, Asia, South America, Central America, the Orient, South Pacific.

CREDITS Magazines: Hemispheres, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Historic Preservation, National Geographic, American Heritage, Money. Books: St. Martin’s Press, Archetype Press, McGraw-Hill, Harcourt Brace, Harper Collins. Design/Architecture: Disney’s Boardwalk Hotel, Dreamworks, Venturi, Scott Brown, Inc. Television: Warner Brothers, "Antiques Roadshow," WGBH.