Waseca Baseball Team - 1909

The vogue of lithographed cards caught Eastman-Kodak's attention. They issued an affordable "Folding Pocket Kodak" camera around 1906. This allowed the mass public to take black and white photographs and have them printed directly onto paper with postcard backs. Various other models of Kodak "postcard" cameras followed igniting a "real photo postcard" (RPPC) era.

These postcard cameras shared two neat features: their negatives were postcard size (the major reason why so many of these images are so clear) and they had a small thin door on the rear of their bodies that, when lifted, enabled the photographer to write an identifing caption or comment on the negative itself with an attached metal scribe. This is the reason so many of these cards are "one of a kind." Unfortunately, many people failed to label their cards. The real photo postcard views are now highly sought after by many institutions and individuals as it serves as a historical record of the past.

We are especially interested in collecting and displaying real photo postcards of the Waseca area. Captured in these postcards are vintage views of the Waseca community with people in the dress of the day, often at work, at play, at school, offering us a glimpse back in time.

People often sent postcards to each other for, in the early 1900s, the postcard was the email of the day. All first class mail went fast. In big cities, the mail was delivered three times or more a day. In many small towns, including Waseca, it was delivered at least twice a day. [I can remember the days when mail was being delivered twice a day in Waseca. /Chuck]

For a green penny stamp, a person could send off the message in the morning, "Let's meet at at the park tonight." A confirmation by return mail could arrive in the afternoon, provided the distance was short enough.