POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST

1960’s Photochrome Era Postcard

In Photochrome 4-Color Process printing

TOPIC

Historic

Virginia City, Montana

Photo includes Rank’s Drug Store!

The general merchandise store, which opened in the summer of 1863, is likely the oldest continuously operated business in the state of Montana.

Charles W. Rank arrived on the third train into Bozeman in 1883. There he launched a career in the drug store business that would span more than half a century.

Charles was a prominent businessman, but he also served terms as city councilman and mayor. Charles married Irish-born Elizabeth Hill in 1887. They raised an adopted daughter and spent the rest of their married lives here. Charles passed away in 1939, and Elizabeth maintained the family home and ran the drug store until her death in 1946.

Year

1960’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.

Publisher

© Published & Photographed by

Lauretta Studio

Butte, Montana

Archie Jess Walkup (1902-1992) was a photographer and his wife, Lauretta Mertz Hardisty Walkup (1902-1968) was a photographer and artist. Together they established their art studio in 1940 in Butte, Montana. Their daughter Lauretta (b.1927) now in her 90’s, is a prolific artist and is a member of the Mainstope Art Gallery in Butte, Montana.

Photographer

Photographed by

Lauretta Studio

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 fair condition.

Picture side in very nice condition.

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