About

This postcard collection was from George Parrot and passed down to his grandson, my Dad Jerry Rowley. I scanned it at Dad’s request. There are some family cards written, and some stamped one cents, and many more bank postcards and souvenir packets.

Dating This Collection

The earliest souvenir packets date back to the mini-packets featuring Niagara Falls and NYC, photographed in the 1910’s according to the copyrights. These two mini-packets were purchased at the Observation Gallery of the Woolworth Building in New York City, according to their box label.

Some of the cards are postmarked. Others have a one cent stamp. One cent stamps were used for postage from 1898-1952.

The white border scenic postcards were popular from 1916-1930, in the “White Border Era”. A lot of the cards and packets come from that era.

Another good method of dating a postcard is by coloring process. The earliest color cards were hand painted over black and white prints, or silk screened. Those are from a time before color photography was perfected, and before color printing using CMYK plates was invented.

My Favorite One

I particularly like the Sequoia and King Canyon Postcard packet that my dad, Jerry Rowley put his name on as a young boy, soon after moving to California in the 1940’s. He wrote “6609 P.” which refers to his new street address : 6609 Peach Avenue, Van Nuys, California.

References:

Irene Rowley April 17, 2019 -rev 2.0 2026