Postcards of Des Plaines

If you're a regular reader of this column, you might wonder how there can be so many old pictures of one place through the years. Many of these pictures are taken from postcards.

Today, you'd be hard-pressed to find a new postcard of Des Plaines outside the Des Plaines History Center. But in their time, postcards were a popular form of communication - the text messages of their day, or as souvenirs before cameras and developing were cheap. And today they are a valuable record of their time, often conveniently dated with a cancellation stamp.

While people might often think of old postcards as colorful, idealized illustrations of an old street scene, like a Curt Teich postcard, straight reproductions of black and white photographs were much more common, along with hand-tinted colorized photos. Locally, these were produced by Chicago postcard photographers like Charles R. Childs, W. G. Brooks, P.L. Huckins, Paul Vogel, and the Defender company, as well as local photographers like William J. Theide, who had a studio on Lee Street where Alpine Camera now stands, the Suburban Post Card Company of Des Plaines, Mr. Johnson, whose studio was in the Des Plaines Theatre building, and many others.

The fact that postcards were so reproduced and widely distributed has helped immensely in the survival of the images; while one photographer might have all the negatives and prints of a given image, a reproduced postcard means that there are many 'backup' copies. Early picture postcards were often printed instead of photographically developed; this process usually resulted in hazy images lacking detail, owing to the 'halftone' process at the time.

After 1907, when government regulations allowed messages to be printed on half of the back of postcards, the popularity of "Real Photo" postcards, developed like a photograph, exploded into a fad. These remained very popular until about 1920, although many continued to be produced up through the 1950s. These Real Photo postcards generally provide the most detailed and accurate views, and are usually well-shot since they were produced by professional photographers, in contrast to amateur snapshots. They are a valuable record of a place in time.

Later, as printing technology improved, "Curt Teich" style illustrated color postcards on 'linen' based on photos became much more popular, followed by 'chrome' high-resolution printed photos after World War II.

Postcards today can be easily found through postcard shows and online. The Des Plaines History Center has hundreds, some of which were reproduced in the 1995 book "Greetings from Des Plaines, Illinois". I have posted most of my personal collection on Flickr.com,  and several other collections have been posted to the Revitalize Des Plaines! Facebook page.

Of course, personal amateur photographs remain elusive. There are probably early pictures of many houses in Des Plaines filed away in the photo albums and scrapbooks of the descendants of previous owners. I, for one, tracked down the grandchildren of the family who built the house I live in, and was able to get very early photos. The only way these will ever be found is through sharing. If you have pictures or slides - another very high-quality photographic source - consider donating them to the History Center or scanning them and putting them online. Even a digital photo of a picture is better than nothing.