Antique & Vintage Postcards

Massive Beaux-Arts stonework fills the frame of this vivid white border postcard depicting the Masonic Temple of Indianapolis, Indiana — its Corinthian colonnades, rusticated granite base, and monumental cornice speak to the height of Masonic institutional ambition in the prosperous 1920s, while a smart fleet of period automobiles angles in along both streets below. Postmarked Indianapolis, 1926, and cancelled with a patriotic "Let's Go — Citizens Military Training Camp" machine slogan, the card carries a breezy note from a traveler named LeRoy to his friend Jack: "Hi Jack. Hows business. Well be home — 'Sometime'" — a wry quip that feels entirely at home in the Roaring Twenties. Addressed to John J. Jones Jr. at 76 Crumbie Ave., Girard, Ohio, the card is a lively social artifact of interwar Midwestern life, complete with a rare military training camp promotional cancel.