"It may be hard to believe, but there actually was a time when the postcard image was not a cliche. To reach it, you'll have to set your clock back to the end of the nineteenth century, when an Act of Congress allowed Americans to mail a card for just one cent. A few years later, Kodak introduced an easy-to-use and affordable folding camera that put postcard power into the hands of ordinary citizens, setting off a photography craze. Real Photo Postcards is a collection of the most outlandish and idiosyncratic, beautiful, and even occasionally bizarre images of this early postcard period." "Carefully assembled from the collection of Harvey Tulcensky and including cards from all over the world, Real Photo Postcards consists of images of natural phenomena (floods, storms, fires), rural life, politics (parades and platforms), science, art (beautiful still lifes and collages), and wacky "exaggeration" cards (including a photographically manipulated giant rabbit!). Together these cards show an oddly personal and intimate perspective of the world at the turn of the twentieth century."--Jacket.