Antique & Vintage Postcards

Flags snapping in the salt breeze above its Moorish-tinged towers, Young's Million Dollar Pier stretches magnificently into the Atlantic at Atlantic City in this vivid 1905-era chromolithograph illustration — the boardwalk below teeming with Edwardian bathers, carriages, and promenaders in their Sunday best. Copyrighted 1902 by Taylor Bros., this colorful artist's rendering of the landmark pier at the foot of Arkansas Avenue captures it near its original glory before successive storms and rebuilds transformed it. The card was mailed March 9, 1910 from Atlantic City to a young woman named Nellie in Euclid Heights, Cleveland, Ohio, bearing a 1-cent green Benjamin Franklin stamp cleanly cancelled. The message — signed by Della — relays cheerful family news: "Mrs. Chandler brought Katherine, checked out with her to take it to New York to the tailors. She will write Katherine." A charming social snapshot of Gilded Age leisure culture at America's favorite seaside resort.