Album Tall-Tale and Exaggeration Postcards from Alan Mays

Steamboat on the Street, Cleveland, Ohio, 1913

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 03:57:46 +0000

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of curbside.

This is a real photo exaggeration postcard showing a steamboat with smoke billowing from its smokestack as it navigates through the surging floodwaters on a city street. The water has stranded some pedestrians at the curb, where they were evidently waiting to cross the street.

Although the location isn't identified, one clue is the business name stamped in the lower right-hand corner: "The Dodd Rogers Co., Kodaks and Cameras."

According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, the Dodd-Rogers Co. operated in Cleveland under that name between 1906 and 1914. Just before the business changed its name to Dodd Co. in 1914, the Great Flood of 1913 inundated Cleveland and affected the rest of Ohio as well as other states (see The 1913 Flood: "Ohio’s Greatest Weather Event", an article by Sarah White on the Cleveland Historical site).

Other exaggeration postcards appeared after the flood. One was captioned The Big Flood in Cleveland, and a second one also used the the same title.

Although I haven't matched this photo with a specific street and it doesn't bear a date, I believe that it was created in 1913 as a humorous reaction to the flood in Cleveland.

This is an divided-back real photo postcard with an Azo stamp box (four corner triangles pointing up) on the other side, which suggests a time frame—1907 to 1918—that covers the year of the flood. The card is unused with no message, address, or postmark on the other side.

Get Right with God at the Anderson Campaign Tabernacle, Coatesville, Pa., 1914

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 00:22:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of church, chapel, or any other religious building.

Caption: "Get Right with God." Painted on the side of the building: "Anderson Campaign Ta[bernacle]."

This is a real photo postcard with a photomontage consisting of five giant heads peering over the top of a large wooden building. "Get Right with God" is the admonition at the top, and the sign on the building identifies it as the "Anderson Campaign Tabernacle."

I also have a second copy of this card that has the name of a photographer -- "D. W. Faulk, 7 Second Ave., Coatesville, Pa." -- embossed on it.

A different version of this real photo postcard that I spotted online is captioned, "Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out," with the location given as "Coatesville, Pa." On the back of all three of the photo postcards is a Noko stamp box design (with "NOKO" on all four sides) that indicates a time frame ranging from 1907 to 1929.

After some searching, I discovered that "Anderson" refers to George Wood Anderson, a minister who ran some of his first large-scale revival meetings in a tabernacle building in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, in 1914. As reported in the Christian Advocate, December 3, 1914, p. 36:

"The Rev. George Wood Anderson, pastor of Elm Park Church, Scranton, Pa., has been conducting for six weeks an evangelistic campaign at Coatesville, Pa., an industrial town of 11,000 people. The service has been carried on in a tabernacle specially constructed. The local paper tabulates results, showing total attendance 140,700, with 2,208 conversions.... Beginning next spring, Dr Anderson will leave the regular pastorate, to devote his life to evangelism, in obedience to an impulse which he has long felt."

A later photo of the "George Wood Anderson Evangelistic Party" appeared in the Christian Workers Magazine, May 1916, p. 712, and allowed me to identify some of the giant heads on this photo card. That's George Wood Anderson himself on the left, his wife Nellie Anderson next to him, and Miss Agnes Smith, director of women's work, in the middle. The man on the right is Carl Leonard, business manager, but I haven't been able to determine who the man next to him is.

George Wood Anderson went on to build tabernacles in other states to continue his revival campaigns. A recent Facebook posting by the Logan County History Center, for instance, describes his evangelistic services and provides photos of tabernacles in Bellefontaine and Belle Center, Ohio.

Too Much Pork for Just One Fork

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 23:59:02 +0000

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The caption on the front of this exaggeration postcard is "Feeding Time," but I borrowed "Too Much Pork for Just One Fork" from Southern Culture on the Skids, who used it as a song and album title.

This is a photomontage by Kansas photographer William H. Martin (1865-1940). For more examples of Martin's work, see Good Corn Makes Good Hogs and A Mess of Potatoes.

This real photo postcard is addressed on the other side to Mr. Richard Storey, Medora, Ill., but there's no stamp or postmark.

Handwritten message: "5/15 1910. They raise 'em like this in Indiana. J.O.B."

A Mess of Potatoes

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:58:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the monthly theme of pick your favorite theme(s)—why is it (are they) your favorite(s)? (submit a photo on this topic each week in addition to—or instead of—a photo for the weekly topic).

William H. Martin (1865-1940), a Kansas photographer who was a master of photomontage, created this real photo postcard in 1908. Postcards like this by Martin and other photographers were especially popular in the early twentieth century and featured gigantic fruits and vegetables, dangerously oversized animals and fish, and amusingly huge products. These humorous trick photos are some of my favorite kinds of vintage photographs. For more examples, see my album of Tall-Tale and Exaggeration Postcards, which includes both photographic and printed cards.

This particular postcard bears a postmark of April 7, 1909, and is addressed to "Mrs. Susan W. Dick, Roaring Springs, Penna. Care [of] Ora L. Dick." The message on the other side refers to the photo on the front: "Dear Mother, Hope you are better. I thought I would send you a mess of potatoes. They look good. Thad & Sue."

Shipping a Few of Our Peaches

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 04 May 2020 03:58:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A fruits and vegetables photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park.

William H. Martin (1865-1940), a Kansas photographer, created this amusing photomontage and published it as a real photo postcard in 1909.

This photo postcard was addressed on the other side to Mr. Alfie Watts, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and postmarked in Lima, Ohio, on Nov. 20, 1910.

Handwritten message: "Lima, Nov. 20/10. Write soon. Friend James. 116 Circular St. W., Lima, Ohio."

Corny Thanksgiving Greetings

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 03:58:02 +0000

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For another early twentieth-century ear-of-corn Thanksgiving postcard, see Thanksgiving Greetings.

Broad View Farm Calendar, Rochester, N.H., 1927

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 15:15:26 +0000

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"Broad View Farm, Stearns Bros., props. Pure milk from our accredited herd. Telephone: 68-M. Rochester, N.H. Make sure your milk is a grade higher. Order it from Broad View Farm. January 1927. A splendid New Year's resolution--'I will return my empty milk bottles daily.'"

Battle the Borer with Hart-Parr Power, Farm Mechanics, May 1927

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 21:35:20 +0000

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A gigantic corn borer caterpillar that's standing in the way of a farmer plowing his field is the startling illustration on the front cover of this May 1927 issue of Farm Mechanics, "a monthly magazine featuring farm improvements, machinery, equipment, farm buildings--for the farmer and the dealer."

The grotesque caterpillar on the cover serves as the dramatic backdrop for an advertisement extolling the virtues of the tractors manufactured by the Hart-Parr Company, which merged with three other firms in 1929 to form the Oliver Farm Equipment Company. The illustration reminds me of the oversized animals and crops on tall-tale and exaggeration postcards.

Excerpts from the advertisement on the cover:

"Battle the Borer with Hart-Parr Power. Plow deep with Hart-Parr power and 16" Vulcan plows, covering completely all corn stalks and corn borers. Battle the borer with powerful, distillate-burning Hart-Parrs, the only tractors recommended to burn cheap, low grade fuels.... Get the facts on the tremendous power of Hart-Parr tractors, which operate all corn borer control machinery efficiently through belt, drawbar, and power take-off.... Hart-Parr Company, founders of the tractor industry, Charles City, Iowa."

Miss America on the Beach, Atlantic City, N.J., ca. 1920s

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Wed, 03 May 2017 17:37:34 +0000

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"490 - Miss America at Atlantic City, N.J. The Play Ground of America."

A larger-than-life Miss America poses among all the little people on the beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey, circa 1920s. "Steeplechase the Funnest Place on Earth" and "A Playground of Innocent Amusement for Young and Old" are the slogans that are partially visible on the long Steeplechase Pier that extends out into the ocean behind Miss America.

You Have the Key That Fits My Heart

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 15:42:02 +0000

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A woman fans herself as a man encroaches on her personal space while they are both perched dangerously on top of a giant key in this amusing image from an early twentieth-century postcard.

Caption: "You have the key that fits my heart."

Too Small for His Britches?

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:30:15 +0000

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"Roberts & Co., leading clothiers, 'glass front,' 797 Broad St., Newark, N.J. Copyright 1883 by J. H. Bufford's Sons."

A winged Cupid, who's wearing a shirt but no pants, waits patiently as two women use needles and thread to mend a gigantic pair of pants. Although pants seem to be an appropriate item to feature in an advertising trade card for a clothing store like Roberts & Co. (whose glass store front was apparently a selling point), I'm not sure why they're so huge or how Cupid is going to wear them. Perhaps this is just a silly scene intended to amuse the children who would paste cards like this in their scrapbooks in the late nineteenth century.

Where We Learn to Be Wise at Pine Island, Minnesota, ca. 1910

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 20 May 2019 03:59:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park with the assignment to find a poem to match your photo.

"Where we learn to be wise at Pine Island. Our public schools."

This real photo postcard features a pre-digital photomontage of oversized owls perched on the roof of the public high school in Pine Island, Minnesota, circa 1910.

"A Wise Old Owl," a nursery rhyme dating to 1875 or earlier, seems an appropriate match to this whimsical photo:

A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

The Way We Catch Them

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 04:19:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"The Way We Catch Them. Souvenir Post Card Co., N.Y." Postmarked Ocean City, N.J., Sept. 6, 1919.

There Are Some Freak Fish Around Here!

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 18:37:22 +0000

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"There are some fish around here. Greetings from Beach Haven Terrace, N.J."

Printed on the back: "Series 925, Freak Fish, 12 designs."

See also There Are Some Fish Around Here.

Our Kind of Cantaloupe—How We Do Things at Lancaster, Pa.

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 04:49:56 +0000

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"How we do things at Lancaster, Pa. Our Kind."

Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr., of Waupun, Wisconsin, created this postcard in 1911.

Truckload of Copper River Salmon, Cordova, Alaska, 1937

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 21:47:38 +0000

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Caption at bottom (difficult to see): "179. Copper River Salmon, Cordova, Alaska. Photocraft."

Sign on building: "Northern Meat [Market]."

Addressed on the other side to Bob Bern, Seward, Alaska, and postmarked Cordova, Alaska, Sep. 30, 1937.

Message: "Dear Bob, How is everybody in Seward? Cordova ain't so bad, but I haven't met any girls yet. We are about a half a mile from town so I go every day. Write some time and let me know how you are. Vic Hughes, c/o Wright & Stock, Cordova, Alaska."

Boy Scout Campfire Cookery—Big Flavor from a Spectacular Spud

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 03:49:28 +0000

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Wisconsin photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr., created this fanciful scene of Boy Scouts roasting a larger-than-life potato over a campfire and published it as a postcard in 1912.

This copy of the card was addressed to Mrs. Galen Groff, Kirkwood, Lanc. Co., Pa., R.F.D. #1, and was postmarked in Quarryville, Pa., on October 7, 1913.

Handwritten message: "Oct. 7, 1913. Dear Aunt, As Ernest said, we were to come down for chestnuts. I thought I would write and tell you that Roy and I will be down on Sun. if it suits you and it don't rain, but if it doesn't suit you please let me know as it will be all right. Maud E."

Mammoth Oregon Apples

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 19:54:56 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A tall-tale postcard created by M. L. Oakes in 1907. For other postcards by Oakes, see Washington Pear and Peach Orchard and The Way They Dig Potatoes in Idaho (below).

Postmark on the other side of the card: April 5, 1910, Portland, Ore. Sta. E (railway post office, RPO).

Addressed to C. M. Bierly, Dents Run, Elk Co., Penna.

Message: "Howdy? Dan."

Come On, Tige!

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 19:48:38 +0000

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Postmarked Boston, Mass., Sept. 12, 1911, on the back and addressed to Miss Edith Bates, 27 Bradbury St., Allston, Mass., with a handwritten message: "Are [Our] Little Dear!"

A curious postcard featuring an oversized dog. The name Tige may relate to the dog in cartoonist Richard F. Outcault's popular Buster Brown comic strip, which first appeared in 1902.

For examples of Outcault's drawings of Tige, see Buster Brown and His Dog Tige and Buster Brown Joker (below).

Jackalope—Rabbit with Horns

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:21:49 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Jackalope (Rabbit with Horns). Sanborn X-1732."

A real photo postcard of the elusive North American jackalope.