POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST

TWO 1980’s Photochrome Era Postcards

Glossy Finish

TOPIC

National Society of the 

 Daughters of the American Revolution

(NSDAR)

DAR Museum, Washington, D.C.

POSTCARD #1

Texas State Room

POSTCARD #2

New Jersey State Room

Print Year

1980’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

Made by Dexter Press, Inc.

Thomas Dexter Press (1934-1980)
West Nyack, New York (1952-1977)

Printer of a wide variety of postcards subjects as linens and photochromes. Thomas A. Dexter (1899-1993) was the inventor of gang printing. The Company merged with MWM Color Press in 1980 to become MWM Dexter, and they moved to Aurora, MO.

While all the photochromes printed by Dexter had the words Genuine Natural Color they went through a variety of phases. Their early photochromes went under the name Dextone and tended to be flat and somewhat dull in appearance. As years went by their optical blending techniques improved producing richer and more varied colors.

Publisher

Prince Lithograph Co., Inc.

Published by L.B. Prince Co.

Founded in 1939

Offices in:

Arlington, Fairfax, and Centreville, Virginia

With a branch in Delaware

Owner Operator: Eva Prince

Lithographer and distributor of postcards, maps, and souvenirs. Eva Prince operates under the name L B Prince Company.  This company primarily operates in the Souvenirs business and has been in business for 79 years.

Distributor

Distributed by L.B. Prince Co.

Fairfax, Virginia

Owner Operator: Eva Prince

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 (CYMK). 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 very good condition.

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