A great white egret — plumes fanning like a bridal veil over a nest of twigs — stands sentinel above three wide-beaked, fuzzy chicks in the heart of Everglades National Park, a scene that would have been unthinkable just decades earlier when plume hunters nearly drove the species to extinction. This vivid Curteich "3-D Natural Color Reproduction" chrome card from the Gulf Stream Card & Distributing Co. of Miami captures the park in its early days — Everglades was designated America's third national park only in 1947 — when airboat tours and cruiser trips to the mangrove islands were a novelty advertised on the card's reverse. The back copy proudly notes "vast flights of exotic and colorful birds gather here to feed and nest," a celebration of conservation success that would have resonated powerfully with mid-century travelers.