Dexter Press Inc.
Postcard Proofs Showing Auto Courts and Other Roadside Attractions, 1920s-30s
Retouched silver prints (53)
4 x 6 1/2 or smaller
Many with collaged text recto.
Many with collaged text recto.
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From the New Jersey-based publisher Dexter Press, this dynamic collection of postcard proofs speaks to the explosion of roadside entrepreneurship that coincided with the rise of auto travel. Present are...
From the New Jersey-based publisher Dexter Press, this dynamic collection of postcard proofs speaks to the explosion of roadside entrepreneurship that coincided with the rise of auto travel. Present are enticing views of auto and motor courts, hotels, main streets, roadside restaurants and shops, and “tourist traps.”
Printed captions have been collaged onto the majority of the images, many with bold, pithy slogans extolling the virtues of the destination in question. One proclaims that a weary traveler can “sleep like home” at the Alta Vista Auto Court in Mill Valley, CA. Another caption, for the Maple Springs Tourist Cottages near Smoky Mountain National Park boasts Grade “A” accommodations with private showers and all tourist conveniences, and the text for Trailer City in Hot Springs, Arkansas, advertises its “strictly modern” features such as an electric washing machine.
More unconventional attractions include the World’s Smallest Violin, on display at the Friendly Buckhorn in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and Indian Spring in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, notable because it was “where Charles Dickens drank in 1843.” Most images contain the same airbrushes and overpainting in the sky and clouds, giving the photo objects a consistent, painterly quality.
Printed captions have been collaged onto the majority of the images, many with bold, pithy slogans extolling the virtues of the destination in question. One proclaims that a weary traveler can “sleep like home” at the Alta Vista Auto Court in Mill Valley, CA. Another caption, for the Maple Springs Tourist Cottages near Smoky Mountain National Park boasts Grade “A” accommodations with private showers and all tourist conveniences, and the text for Trailer City in Hot Springs, Arkansas, advertises its “strictly modern” features such as an electric washing machine.
More unconventional attractions include the World’s Smallest Violin, on display at the Friendly Buckhorn in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and Indian Spring in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, notable because it was “where Charles Dickens drank in 1843.” Most images contain the same airbrushes and overpainting in the sky and clouds, giving the photo objects a consistent, painterly quality.