Antique & Vintage Postcards

A crisp pre-divided-back view of the École de Guerre — France's elite war college — along the avenue de la Motte-Picquet in Paris's 15th arrondissement, a uniformed officer strolling with a black dog in the foreground and tram tracks cutting through the cobblestones. Founded in 1880, the École de Guerre trained the French officer corps for a generation of modern warfare; Ferdinand Foch was among its students, and it would shape the commanders of both world wars. Publisher A. Taride — the great Parisian cartographer and postcard house — issued this during the golden age of the picture postcard, just as the format was conquering the world.