Antique & Vintage Postcards

Five bighorn rams stare directly into the lens with the unhurried confidence of animals who have never feared a predator they couldn't outrun on a cliff face — this magnificent real-photo postcard captures a herd of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) on a grassy alpine slope, coniferous forest framing the scene behind them, the dominant ram standing alert at far right with a full curl of horn. The image numbered "42" in the lower right is part of the Canadian Pacific Railway's celebrated scenic wildlife postcard series, produced and distributed through CPR hotels and depots in the Canadian Rockies — Banff, Lake Louise, and Field were prime locations where tourists encountered tame or semi-habituated bighorns along roadsides. The back carries a genuine Canada 1¢ Admiral stamp in orange-yellow (King George V), affixed but uncancelled, confirming the card was purchased but never posted. The publisher imprint reads "Property of Canadian Pacific Railway / Distributed and Controlled by / Byron Harmon, Banff, Canada" — Byron Harmon was the preeminent Banff photographer of the era, whose wildlife and landscape images defined how the world visualized the Canadian Rockies through the 1910s–1930s.