Delaware Postcards

Items

• “The McLane Deed”
  The reverse, message side of a photo postcard from a commemorative set memorializing Colonel Allen McLane, a Revolutionary War veteran and resident of Smyrna. The set was published by the Smyrna Delaware American Revolution Bicentennial Committee in 1975. The observe, image side depicts a desk staged with a reproduction of the 1799 McLane deed, an inkwell, and quills. Annotations from Caley can be found on the reverse, where he notes that the photograph used for the image on the postcard was taken within his and his wife Irene’s home, on Irene’s Queen Anne lowboy, an eighteenth-century furniture form likely selected for use in this postcard set for its connections to the colonial period.
• “Old Presbyterian Meeting House, now owned by Delaware Historical Society.”
  A 1906 picture postcard of the Historical Society of Delaware’s former location, the Old First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. The postcard’s brief inscription reads “This is on Wilmington’s principle [sic] street. What have we done to be thus affected [?]” Constructed in 1740 for the congregants of the First Presbyterian Church, the building was threatened by the city’s rapid growth at the turn of the twentieth century and at risk of demolition. In 1918, the structure was disassembled and relocated by the Delaware chapters of the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America and the Society of Colonial Wars.
• “Cooch’s Bridge Monument. Marking the spot where the “Stars and Stripes” were first unfurled in battle; Sept. 3, 1777. Erected by the N.S.D.A.R. September 3, 1901.”
  An unsent postcard of the 1901 monument at Cooch’s Bridge, the location of the only Revolutionary War-era battle fought on Delaware soil on September 3, 1777. The unusual caption specifies the involvement of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a memory activist group, in creating the monument, despite the monument itself only crediting the anonymous "...patriotic societies and citizens of the State of Delaware."
• Delaware 250 "To me, Delaware is..." Dover Heritage Festival Postcard
  A photograph of a "To me, Delaware is..." postcard interactive lying on Delaware 250 pencils and pens at a tabling event held by the Delaware Public Archives at the Dover Heritage Festival. The postcard was completed by an unhoused member of the public in attendance at the festival. While his cryptic, almost elegiac message on the significance of the state to him contrasted with other participants' more casual, upbeat entries, each one demonstrated a distinct moment of reflection where individual meaning and memories were negotiated within the context of a historic, statewide public initiative.
• Cooch's Bridge Monument Postcard
  A black and white postcard produced by E.B. Frazer and published by Raphael Tuck & Sons as part of their postcard series No. 2164 on Newark, Delaware. The postcard depicts a popular subject in early twentieth century Delawarean postcards, the 1901 monument commemorating the alleged first use of the American flag, referred to here by its colloquial name "The Stars and Stripes," during the September 3, 1777 Battle of Cooch's Bridge. An inscription from the postcard's sender reading "See what great things was done in Del" demonstrates an individual's desire to preserve and share the memory of a significant historic site in Delaware's Revolutionary War history via a commercial object.
• Blue Hen's Chickens Christmas and New Year's Postcard
  A message-face postcard produced and copyrighted by George A. Wolf in 1904. This Christmas and New Year's postcard has a decidedly Delawarean bend; not only is it attributed to the state via the title "State of Delaware Post Card," but it also features the state's seal and Blue Hen's chickens, Delaware's state bird. These are depicted alongside festive imagery, including an oval scene of children gathered around a fireplace with stockings and a Christmas placed within a silver bell.
• "Ceasar Rodney Momument, signer Declaration Independence for Deleware."
  A black and white postcard by Illustrated Post Card Company between 1901 and 1906 depicting the cenotaph for Caesar Rodney. The postcard features handwritten inscriptions on both sides, with a green Dover Trading Stamp Company stamp on its recto, or front, and a green Benjamin Franklin one cent postage stamp on its verso. The object serves parallel purposes as a mass-manufactured souvenir and as a vehicle for a personal interpretation of Delaware's history.