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Postcard 1907 Reindeer Outfit Lapland Sami Sled Norway Undivided Back USA
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Pre-linen · 1905

Postcard 1907 Reindeer Outfit Lapland Sami Sled Norway Undivided Back USA

Lapland, Norway1905Pre-linenGood

Across a vast snow-blank landscape near Norway's North Cape, a bearded Sami driver and two passengers glide behind a team of four reindeer in this beautifully colorized Edwardian-era postcard — one of the earliest ethnographic postcard subjects to capture Western imaginations, depicting the indigenous Sámi people of Lapland in their traditional fur garments and pulka-style sled. Numbered 132 in a world-geography series, the card's back carries a remarkable printed description that reflects Edwardian-era attitudes: noting that "the Lapps are by no means beautiful, attractive or cleanly" and that men stand "about five feet high" — a reminder of how these cards functioned as popular anthropology in an age before documentary film. The domestic/foreign stamp rate notice (1¢/2¢) and the "For Address Only" undivided back format place this squarely in the pre-1907 UPU era or very shortly after the US divided-back transition. Unused, with a penciled price of $1.50 in the upper corner — a dealer's mark from decades past.

$12.95
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PC-00427
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