Antique & Vintage Postcards

Two brass-era automobiles rumble along a broad promenade while ladies in white dresses stroll toward the gate of Victoria Park — this wonderfully detailed early postcard of Niagara Falls from the Canadian side is a snapshot of the dawn of automobile tourism, when horseless carriages and Victorian pedestrians shared the same grand boulevard. The colorized bird's-eye view sweeps across the entrance to Victoria Park toward the full panorama of both American Falls and Horseshoe Falls beyond, with a Maid of the Mist steamer visible in the misty gorge. Numbered NY.103 in the publisher's series and captioned with a note about the "pamorama [sic] of both the American and Horseshoe Falls," this is a textbook example of the Edwardian souvenir postcard at its most ambitious. Unused and unaddressed.