Wooden postcard
Wood postcards have been produced and sold in the U.S. as keepsakes.[1] Wooden postcards were sold for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair held in Forest Park. Many included puns associated with wood: "Exposition is more than oak-a", "it is ash-tonishing", I wood spruce up and come", "You walnut regret it." and "Butternut delay". The Lewis and Clark Exposition of 1905 and the Jamestown Exposition of 1907 included wooden postcard souvenirs.[1] The tradition of folksy puns continued in later wooden postcard lines. Others feature images, cartoons, advertisements and event commemorations.
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[edit]Japanese Wood Novelty Co. in Providence, Rhode Island produced wooden postcards designed for photo insertion. They included gummed paper backing.[1]
Bowman Studios was a Tampa, Florida based producer of cypress wood postcards in the 1940s.[2] Images on their wooden postcards included azaleas, red hibiscus, pelicans and a Carolina landscape.[2][3]
Many early wood postcards are printed with colored images while others were marked by pyrography (woodburning) or a combination of the two processes.[1]
Wooden postcards usually require the one ounce letter rate postage. Thus the postage used can help date the cards, for example 3 Cent stamps were used for one ounce letters from 1932 to 1958. Wooden postcards light enough for the postcard rate required 1 cent postage until 1952; 2 cents from 1952 to 1958; and 3 cents from 1958 to 1963. The postage rates were once commonly printed on the cards.[3]
Select wooden postcards with bas relief designs were made.[3]
B.B. Quality Line produced bird's eye maple wooden postcards in Wisconsin, including Paul Bunyan themed cards.[3] Grison's Steak & Chop House and Grison's Chicken House, restaurants in San Francisco, advertised its menu on wooden postcards for several years including 1939.[3] Dixie Novelty Co. in Asheville, North Carolina produced World War II cartoon themed wooden postcards.[3]