Ok, I’ll readily admit this site likely seems boring and conservative; even I wouldn’t have imagined that despite having more hobbies than brains, that the thing I’d be posting about the most are…postcards? Really?? Like I needed another hobby. I promise I’ll post some more fun stuff in the near future, until then…the boring stuff LOL. I’m not all “conservative” either; the heavy metal music rattles the antiques too much.
I recently came upon this card that appears to basically be a business card from the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial for Potsdamer & Co. The card displays the various buildings that were part of the Centennial, and sadly, only one of which exists today (as far as I know) as the Please Touch Museum of Philadelphia. Perhaps this article can shed some light on why so little were preserved.
Naturally there has to be a relation to the Franklin Institute; the card does mention that the business was awarded the Silver Medal from the Franklin Institute Exhibition in 1874. I mentioned the FI exhibition in a previous post here. Apparently the exhibition awards were well regarded back then!
The card is basically a business card for Potsdamer & Co, a Lithographic firm located near 8th and Chestnut Streets (in 1876 anyway). You can find a little more information about them on this post here, including a note about their participation in the Centennial: https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A79659
Please Support Your Local Museums
As I mentioned in my previous posts, many public institutions, large and small, have been affected greatly in the pandemic, with many museums like the Please Touch Museum remaining closed for obvious reasons. Please do what you can to support these institutions, whether via donation or another means.