Antique & Vintage Postcards

Sheltered beneath the broad canopy of a breadfruit tree, the oldest American frame house west of the Rockies — shipped in pieces from New England and erected in 1821 by Protestant missionaries in Honolulu — glows white against lush tropical foliage in this mid-century chrome postcard, the adjacent 1823 coral-block Printing House just visible at right. This complex, maintained by the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society at 553 South King Street, Honolulu, was the headquarters of the American Protestant mission and home to generations of missionary families until 1896; today it operates as the Mission Houses Museum, one of Hawai'i's most significant historic preservation sites. Printed by Irving Rosen Color Production of Honolulu, this unused card is a clean representative of mid-century Hawaiian tourism ephemera with genuine historical depth — connecting the Islands' transformation in the 19th century to the 20th-century visitor economy.