Antique & Vintage Postcards

The side-wheel steamer Mt. Washington glides across Lake Winnipesaukee in a hand-tinted promotional postcard, her Boston & Maine Railroad Line livery crisp on the paddle-wheel housing — a vessel that became synonymous with summer leisure in the White Mountains of New Hampshire at the turn of the twentieth century. This remarkable card is actually a multi-panel folding souvenir booklet, printed in Saxony, that unfolds to reveal a series of photographic views including Weirs Bridge, the New Weirs Hotel, Mt. Major Lake, and the steamboat herself reflected in the glassy waters. The back is titled "Souvenir of the Weirs and Lake Winnipesaukee," posted as printed matter at 1¢ international rate, and stamped "Made in Saxony" — the era's hallmark of fine chromolithographic souvenir printing. The steamer Mt. Washington operated under the Boston & Maine Railroad's Lake service from 1872 and became a beloved icon of the Gilded Age resort era; a later vessel bearing the same name still cruises the lake today.