Antique & Vintage Postcards

Horse-drawn omnibuses rumble across Historic Old London Bridge while a magnificent red double-decker tram dominates Parliament Square — two vivid slices of Edwardian London life packed onto a single colorful dual-view card, postmarked September 29, 1909 and mailed from Cherryvale, Kansas by "Aunt Lizzie" to her niece Florence in Ottawa, Kansas. The card was published with a copyright 1909 credit to J.I. Austen Co. and printed in rich lithographic color with ornate Art Nouveau red-ink borders; the left vignette shows the bustling Thames crossing with its forest of Victorian commercial buildings beyond, while the right captures the open square before Parliament with Big Ben's tower hazy in the distance — an everyday scene that now reads as pure historical document. Lizzie's chatty message mentions two hometown girls visiting from Porter and Illinois, the weather turning, and closes with affectionate hellos to "Stokely and Luttie," painting an intimate portrait of rural Kansas social life in 1909.