Antique & Vintage Postcards

Elm trees arch over a sun-dappled Main Street in Lenox, Massachusetts, as late-1950s and early-1960s automobiles — a teal Chevrolet among them — angle-park along a row of gracious Federal-period buildings in this crisp chrome-era postcard. Lenox, nestled in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, had by mid-century reinvented itself from Gilded Age resort colony (home to grand "Cottages" owned by Carnegies and Westinghouses) into a cultured summer arts destination, anchored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra's celebrated summer home at Tanglewood, just two miles from this very street. The reverse notes: "This peaceful town in the BEAUTIFUL BERKSHIRE HILLS is host every summer to the Berkshire Music Festival of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood." Photographed by Sam Scarfone and published by Crown Specialty Advertising of North Adams, Massachusetts, printed by Dexter Press — the dominant producer of chrome-era American postcards. An attractive, unused example in excellent condition with strong color.