POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST

1950’s Photochrome Era Postcard

TOURISM POSTCARD

In Photochrome 4-Color Process printing

TOPIC

LAMBERT GARDENS

Portland, Oregon

Lambert Gardens was a private botanical garden of over 30 acres in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was a significant attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors a year.

It was owned by Andrew Lambert, who turned the grounds of his former landscaping business into a series of thematic garden settings, such as the Sunken Rose Gardens and the Italian Court, complete with peacocks and flamingos.

By 1968, when Lambert grew too old to care for the gardens, he offered to sell them to the city of Portland; when they turned him down, he sold it to developers, who tore out the gardens and replaced them with apartments and parking. One of the apartments built on the land is called "Lambert Gardens Apartments."

In September 2005, Lambert Gardens Apartments was acquired by neighboring complex Wimbledon Square and renamed "Wimbledon Gardens."

Year

1950’s

Era

Photochrome Era (1939-ongoing)

 “Chrome” postcards began to dominate the scene soon after the Union Oil Company placed them in its western service stations in 1939.  Mike Roberts pioneered his “WESCO” cards soon after World War II.  Three-dimensional postcards also appeared in this era.  By 1960s, the standard size of cards had grown to 4 x 6 inches.

Photochromes are not real photos but rather, printed cards done by a photochrome process.  To distinguish a printed postcard from a real photo postcard, examine it under a magnifying glass and you will see the dot pattern that is characteristic of printed cards.

Printer

Union Oil Company’s

Natural Color Scenes of the West

Tour the West This Year with 76 Union Gasoline

Union Oil Company of California (1890-2005), dba Unocal is a company that was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headquartered in El Segundo, California, United States.

Starting in the early 1940’s, they started publishing photochrome postcards of the West. Most were sold in their gas stations.

Publisher

Published by

Union Oil Company

Size

Standard Size: 5 ½ X 3 ½ / 14cm X 8.9cm

Printing Technique

Photochrome 1939-

 4-Color Process printing

Full-color images are created on the printing press by applying separate layers of the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks. Photochrome cards were both more realistic looking and less expensive. Thousands of colors can be reproduced by overlapping these CMYK colors in various concentrations. Applied as tiny dots on the paper the four CMYK colors combine to create the visual effect we know as full color printing.

CONDITION

Unused /Unposted

Corners and edges in good condition.

Picture side in very nice condition.

Some smudges on back side.

NO tears, creases, pinholes, smears, , stains, or mold.