Antique & Vintage Postcards

Towering stalks of sugar cane stretch fifteen feet into a glowing Everglades sunset while a lone figure — dwarfed to human scale against the wall of green — stands at the edge of the row, conveying both the agricultural enormity and the almost romantic wildness of South Florida's interior in this richly colored linen-era card. Produced by Genuine Curteich-Chicago using the "C.T. Art-Colortone" linen process, the card promotes the plantations of the United States Sugar Corporation, which ran continuously from Canal Point on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee around its southern shore fifty-five miles to Moore Haven — a business empire that remains controversial in conservation circles to this day. The reverse text notes stalks routinely reached twelve to fifteen feet, an authentic detail that underscores the subtropical fecundity of the drained Everglades muck-lands. A detail scan reveals the figure wearing work clothes and standing with hands in pockets, surveying the crop — a compositional choice that humanizes an otherwise industrial subject.