Postcards are defined by their small size, but recently, some have taken on a new scale. New interior wall murals at Pack Memorial Library bring these pocket-sized scenes to larger-than-life dimensions.
Buncombe County Special Collections holds several thousand postcards depicting scenes of Asheville, Buncombe County, and Western North Carolina. For muralist Max Dowdle, they provided a wealth of inspiration to draw from as he planned the library’s new murals. Dowdle, whose “absolute favorite part of the process is the design phase,” viewed vintage postcards and made selections to represent our community.
Community members also helped bring the designs to life, collectively wielding brushes as volunteers at recent public paint days. (Max is also behind the larger mural currently in progress around the building’s exterior as part of his project Paint NC. Learn more here.)
Why postcards? They deliver beauty, nostalgia, and a snapshot of how communities imagine themselves. To deepen your appreciation of our new murals, here’s a little dive into postcard history and Asheville’s unique role in it.
A Short History of Postcards
American “postal cards” originated way back in the 1860s, originally copyrighted by John B. Charlton and Hymen Lipman. (Yeah, that Hymen Lipman—the same guy who started the first envelope company in the US, and came up with the idea of a pencil with lead at one end and an eraser at the other. A big deal for stationery enthusiasts!)[1]
Both government-printed postal cards and privately produced cards became popular at the turn of the century as an industry in souvenirs exploded. Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago purchased 1.8 million official souvenir postcards to share their experiences with friends and family back home—perhaps between visiting the Biltmore Forestry exhibition or drinking their first sip of newly-blue-ribboned Pabst.[2] In 1898, Congress began allowing privately printed postcards to be mailed for the same cost as government-issued ones—one cent rather than two. That change fueled an explosion of postcard production.
Early on, messages would be written on the front, if space allowed, while the back was reserved for the mailing address. This changed in 1907, with a government order allowing messages to be written on the same side as the address. Deltiologists (postcard experts) call the period of 1907-1915 the “divided back era” because of this attribute, as well as the “golden age of postcards” because of the great leap in postcard popularity that the era represented.[3]
Tariffs on German-printed postcards, the outbreak of World War I, and changes in printing and mass production contributed to the next shifts:
- the “white border era” (1915-1930) during which printers saved ink by leaving an unprinted border around the image;
- the “linen era” (1930-1945) which introduced brightly colored images offset-printed on card stock with a high rag content and finished with a textured pattern to resemble linen cloth;
- the “photochrome era” (1945-present) of full-color, high-gloss postcards.
A good chunk of the postcards in BCSC’s collections date from the first half of the twentieth century, and many exhibit the tell-tale texture of the linen era.
The Asheville Post Card Company
Postcards depicting Asheville and Western North Carolina were created by many famous and prolific publishers.
William Henry Jackson, the “father of the picture postcard,” captured scenes of WNC for the Detroit Publishing Company (originally the Detroit Photographic Company).[4]
Colorful urban and mountain landscapes alike were published by Curt Teich & Company, which had popularized the “Greetings from…” large-letter format that became widely adopted in the linen era (inspired by the “Gruß aus” postcards Teich had known in his native Germany).[5]
The Southern Post Card Company, with offices ranging across the South, was for a time headquartered in Asheville and distributed postcards under the leadership of Ashevillian Edwin L. Brown, of Brown Book Company.[6]
But WNC didn’t just appear on postcards. It also produced them by way of a homegrown postcard publisher, aptly called the Asheville Post Card Company.
The Asheville Post Card Company was first listed in the Asheville city directory of 1921, but may have begun as early as 1910-1915.[7] It operated out of locations on Patton Avenue and then North Lexington Avenue before heading across Chicken Alley to 31 Carolina Lane, where it operated until 1977.
The business was founded by Kentucky-born Lamar Campbell LeCompte (1888-1977), who had worked as a traveling salesman before his move to Asheville.[8] From wholesale postcard sales, to jobbing and distributing for “several northern postcard publishers,” and then to producing his own postcards, LeCompte grew his business over time, writes author J.L. Mashburn in Asheville & Buncombe County…Once Upon a Time.
He took few photos himself, preferring to purchase photos from professional photographers. Those images would be retouched and colored in to create the bright scenes prized by customers.
Sometimes the scenes reflected reality; other times elements were added, removed, or recolored into exaggerated, hyper-vivid representations. Sometimes the original photographers were credited, but frequently they were not.[9] Images were republished with different color schemes, captions, and edits over the course of many years.
By the 1970s, business had declined and the Asheville Post Card Company was sitting on large quantities of backstock. Ultimately, LeCompte’s death in June 1977 spelled the end for the company. Most of its remaining inventory—20 million vintage postcards—was sold off.[10]
The building at 31 Carolina Lane passed on to new owners, and in 1998, Pack Memorial Library purchased the portion of the collection containing postcards related to Western North Carolina. This collection of over 1100 postcards, almost 1200 photographs, 11 sales catalogs containing sample postcards, and letters to LeCompte from his customers, is a fascinating lens through which to explore our area’s history.
A Productive Partnership
Among the photographers whose work LeCompte turned into postcard scenes was the legendary George Masa (1885-1933). Masa’s career as a photographer was relatively short—he arrived in Asheville in 1915; opened his own business, Plateau Studios, in 1919; and died of tuberculosis in 1933—but incredibly prolific and impactful.[11]
Masa and his friend Horace Kephart were enthusiastic advocates for the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Masa’s photographs were instrumental in efforts to “sell” the idea of the park to leaders in business and politics. Postcards are one way that Masa’s images reached a wide, popular audience, in his own time and for many years after, as postcards made from his images continued to be printed and circulated.
Some of these black and white prints show the “retouching” that was done to the original print to render the image suitable for a postcard. Daylight scenes became night, with a full moon added for effect. White azaleas were painted red. The mirror image of the photograph of Lake Lure was used for the postcard. Despite modifications and gaudy colorization, the beauty of the original scenes shines through.
Marketing Western North Carolina
WNC’s long-standing status as a popular tourist destination meant that postcards abounded both as souvenirs and tools of promotion. As early as 1910 The Asheville Gazette-News reported that the local post office was sending out 20,000 to 25,000 postcards daily, exceeding “by far” the quantity of regular sealed letters being dispatched.[12]
In 1913, Asheville even organized its first “Postcard Day,” a coordinated attempt to entice potential travelers to visit the region. Residents were encouraged to write postcards far and wide and drop them in special boxes to be mailed, with the postage covered by the Board of Trade, Asheville Merchants’ Association, and WNC State Fair Association.[13]
“Asheville has come to regard the mailing of scenic beauties, by way of the post card route, as one of its most valuable forms of advertising.”
—The Asheville Times, 1925. [14]
And it wasn’t just Asheville. Correspondence from the records of the Asheville Post Card Company shows that LeCompte worked with tourism promoters near and far to source images, get the right wording, and sell bulk quantities of postcards.
In these letters from 1948, LeCompte makes arrangements with the Boone Chamber of Commerce for the creation of a souvenir view folder, with the Chamber providing the photographs and Asheville Post Card Company supplying them with wholesale quantities of finished folders: “1 or 2 M @ 60.00,” MS054.001M.
A Partial Picture
Postcard content is also a window into how its primary consumer market—mostly white, middle or upper middle class people with the leisure time for travel—viewed the world. Postcard imagery emphasized the landscape, buildings, and cultural elements that appealed to these visitors, while leaving out much of our region’s social complexity.
Since postcards tend to highlight what a community wants to celebrate, what gets left out?
In WNC’s postcard history, resort hotels, “rustic charm,” and scenic views are widely promoted, while working-class spaces, industrial sites, and Black or Indigenous communities were less frequently depicted. When they were represented, they often reflected stereotypes and romanticized tropes designed to appeal to outsiders.
For instance, this image of moonshiners—another George Masa photo—is probably staged, since the subjects’ faces are shown. (The man at left has been identified as folklorist Bascom Lamar Lunsford.) Illicit alcohol distillation is an important part of the history of North Carolina, but also a frequently commodified aspect of the “hillbilly” stereotype.
Postcards from the late 1930s-1940s, when Cherokee became a major tourist destination, show locals dressed in a mix of Cherokee clothing and Plains-style feathered regalia that catered to visitors’ expectations of what an “authentic” Native American experience should look like.[15]
Like all primary sources, postcards need to be viewed critically, considering things like audience, intentions, economics, and alterations.[16] Through their imagery and captions, they document the built and natural environment, transportation networks, major events, clothing and culture. If they were sent and contain writing, they can offer individual context about how a person may have related to a place.
Through omissions, embellishments, and edits, they share a carefully crafted vision of Western North Carolina, reinforcing parts of regional identity that communities and tourism promoters wanted to project, and in turn influencing how outsiders imagine the region.
As you explore the new murals in Pack Memorial Library, you may spot some of these same scenes reimagined, enlarged, and still shaping how we picture Western North Carolina. What do they tell you?
Send a Postcard to Your Library!
Postcards are still a delightful, tactile way to share where you are and what you’ve noticed. They might not hold the cultural weight they once did, but they’re still fun—and in addition to adorning our walls, they’re also part of this year’s inaugural Adult Summer Reading Challenge!
Send one from your travels (or right here in WNC) to any Buncombe County Public Library branch to mark off a challenge square. Learn more here and consider sending something to the attention of your friendly local librarians at:
Pack Memorial Library, 67 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801
Post by Carissa Pfeiffer, Librarian, Buncombe County Special Collections, with special thanks to Alex Purcell, Library Assistant, Pack Memorial Library.
“A Productive Partnership” section is expanded and edited from a version originally published by Zoe Rhine as an online photo exhibit on this blog in 2015. (See archived version.)
Endnotes
[1] If that name didn’t immediately ring a bell, and you’re suddenly realizing you need to learn more about the history of pencils (who doesn’t?) then check out Henry Petroski’s The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance or Caroline Weaver’s The Pencil Perfect: The Untold Story of a Cultural Icon.
[2] Toney Crumbley, “Charles W. Goldsmith’s Official Columbian Exposition Postal Cards,” Postcard History blog post, August 2, 2021, https://postcardhistory.net/2021/08/charles-w-goldsmiths-official-columbian-exposition-postal-cards/; “May 1, 1893: WNC Forestry on Display at Columbian Exposition,” Asheville Museum of History, https://www.ashevillehistory.org/may-1-1893-wnc-forestry-on-display-at-columbian-exposition/; Jimmy Stamp, “Where Did Pabst Win That Blue Ribbon?” Smithsonian Magazine, November 20, 2012,https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/where-did-pabst-win-that-blue-ribbon-138975181/
[3] “Greetings from the Smithsonian: A Postcard History,” Smithsonian Institution Archives, https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/postcard/postcard-history.
[4] Fred Bassett, “Wish You Were Here!: The Story of the Golden Age of Picture Postcards in the United States,” New York State Library, https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/qc16510ess; Jack Davis, “William Henry Jackson and the Detroit Publishing Company,” in Samuel L. Schmucker: The Discovery of His Lost Art, page 46, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Samuel_L_Schmucker/pRYRbRqkyhwC.
[5] Anne Peck-Davis and Diane Lapis, “The Immigrant Story Behind the Classic ‘Greetings From’ Postcards,” Smithsonian Magazine, November 27, 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/immigrant-story-behind-classic-greetings-from-postcards-180970894/.
[6] “The Woman’s Page,” The Asheville Times, August 17, 1924, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-asheville-times-southern-post-card-c/199373393/; “Valentine Idea Reveals Change to Identities,” The Asheville Times, January 25, 1925, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-asheville-times-valentines/199383134/; “Extra Tax on Post Cards,” The Asheville Times, March 22, 1925, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-asheville-times-extra-tax-on-postcar/199378520/.
[7] “Circa 1910” per LeCompte’s memory in a 1977 article; “over twenty-one years ago” in a 1936 article would place it closer to 1915; “since 1913” according to J.L. Mashburn. Nancy Brower, “Campbell LeCompte’s Cards Offer Twinge of Nostalgia,” Asheville Times, March 10, 1977, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-asheville-times-asheville-post-card/199375971/; “Post Cards Are Made Locally,” Asheville Citizen, August 24, 1936, https://www.newspapers.com/article/asheville-citizen-times-19360824-ashevil/199307359/; J.L. Mashburn,“Mr. LeCompte’s Postcard Company” in Asheville & Buncombe County…Once Upon a Time (Enka, NC: Colonial House Publishers, 2012).
[8] Henry County Local [New Castle, Kentucky], September 27, 1912, https://www.newspapers.com/article/henry-county-local-campbell-lecompte-sel/199374924/
[9] Ben Marks, “How Linen Postcards Transformed the Depression Era Into a Hyperreal Dreamland,” Collectors Weekly, January 29, 2016, https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/how-linen-postcards-transformed-the-depression-era/.
[10] J.L. Mashburn,“Mr. LeCompte’s Postcard Company” in Asheville & Buncombe County…Once Upon a Time (Enka, NC: Colonial House Publishers, 2012); “20 Million Post Cads [sic],” Hartford [Connecticut] Courant, November 11, 1979, https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant-asheville-post-card-co/199787063/.
[11] Janet McCue and Paul Bonesteel, George Masa: A Life Reimagined (Gatlinburg, TN: Smokies Life, 2024).
[12] “’Postcard Season Is Now At Its Height,” Asheville Gazette-News, August 24, 1910, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-asheville-times-postcard-season-at-i/199375590/
[13] ”First ’Postcard Day’ Was a Great Success,” The Asheville Gazette-News, September 1, 1913, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-asheville-times-asheville-postcard-d/199443197/.
[14] “Extra Tax on Post Cards,” The Asheville Times, March 22, 1925, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-asheville-times-extra-tax-on-postcar/199378520/.
[15] For more info, see Andrew Denson, ”More than Tourism: Cherokee, North Carolina, in the Post-War Years,” ANCHOR, Library of NC, 2009, https://www.ncanchor.org/anchor/more-tourism-cherokee-north.
[16] A great overview of local history research with postcards (including case studies) is ”Using Postcards for Local History Research” by Carmen Nigro at the New York Public Library, https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/12/04/postcards-local-history-research.
