Hobby News: Book Review: Arizona Real Photo Postcards

Arizona Real Photo Postcards – A History & Portfolio by Jeremy Rowe
Reviewed by Alec Millard

This is a book about the history of the state of Arizona as told through real photo postcards, but it will also be of interest to any collector who is interested in Real Photo postcards in general. There is also a history of postcards and postcard collecting, describing the hobby from it infancy all the way up to the collecting crazes of the present day.

The chapters on Arizona history are interesting and include many real photos showing historically significant events in Arizona’s history. Anyone interested in early photography, mining, aviation, automobiles, Native Americans or the Mexican Border War will find these chapters enjoyable.

Also included in this book is a highly useful real photo dating and identification guide. This section has guides to identifying postmarks, deciphering written messages, photographic title identification, stamp box dating, identifying photographic postcard paper types and information about the printing processes used to reproduce photographs. This section is universal and can be used by anyone interested in identifying real photo cards

The second half of the book is a portfolio of real photo images from Arizona’s past. Every one of the 121 real photo postcard images in this book is worth taking a second look at. I found myself ooing and ahhing the whole way through the portfolio. You can tell that this is not just any collection of real photos, but one that has been built and refined over many years. Many of the images have great historical significance. I’m going to include just a couple of the MANY photo images that I found particularly interesting below with their captions from the book.



“C.S. Fly of Tombstone was one of the best-known photographers in Arizona in the 1880s, and his wife continued to run a successful studio after his death. Fire claimed the studio, destroying printed and negatives. This image by Mrs. Fly was taken as the Tombstone studio burned to the ground for the last time c. 1912.”



“The post office was the center of social life, particularly in small communities. The local service from Ganado is ready for a heavy delivery run c. 1917”

Due to the generosity of Jeremy Rowe, PostcardCollector.org will be giving away a copy of this book to one of our readers in an upcoming member contest! If you would like to win a copy of “Arizona Real Photo Postcards – A History & Portfolio” by Jeremy Rowe keep an eye on the forums for more details about the contest and how to win.

If you would like to purchase a copy of this book I will include all of the information and a link to the Amazon page below:

192 pages; 7" x 10", 121 black & white photographs, dating and identification guide, bibliography, appendix, index. ISBN 978-1-887694-25-4 trade paper

http://www.amazon.com/Arizona-Real-Photo-Postcards-Portfolio/dp/1887694250