POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST

1940’s Photochrome Era Postcard

Glossy Finish

TOPIC

The Mimslyn Motor Inn

Luray, Virginia

A Colonial-type inn on attractive grounds, convenient to Luray Caverns, Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park.

The classic Georgian Revival architecture of the Mimslyn Inn rises gracefully from the rolling hills of the historic Shenandoah Valley. The warmth and charm of The Mimslyn Inn have been welcoming guests since 1931.

Print Year

1940’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

Genuine Natural Color

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

Published by Lewis E. Allen

Photographer

Color Photo by Lewis E. Allen

Front Royal, Virginia

Lewis Everett Allen (1907-1972) was a photographer from the state of Virginia. From 1931 to 1939, Lewis was a reporter for the Newport News, Virginia. In 1940, he started taking photographs of Virginia for postcards printed by Colourpicture Inc. and published his own postcards. Mr. Allen passed away in 1972.

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.

A few small stains around back side edges.

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