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Before email, before television, before the telephone, there was the picture postcard. Postcards combine personal communication, advertising and entertainment in a package that is easily affordable for local attractions to create and within the means of the average individual to purchase and mail to friends and family.
"Having a Wonderful Time" examines three facets of postcards from Asheville and Western North Carolina, beginning with the photographers. Though many postcard images were photographed anonymously, others can be identified. The exhibition will include images by local photographers including George Masa and Herbert Pelton as well as nationally prominent photographers such as William Henry Jackson. The exhibition also examines how the land, the people and the built environment were interpreted through postcards. Some postcards focus on the sophisticated architecture of the region, including views of Douglas Ellington’s Art Deco masterpiece, the Asheville City Building and the Biltmore House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt for George Vanderbilt. Others show views of the mountains that would indicate that few humans had ever ventured into the region. Many postcards depicted people, particularly the Cherokee and “Mountain Folk” as living as their ancestors had lived in times past. The third component of the exhibition explores the wide range of individuals and companies that produced postcards of the region. These ranged from individual photographers and local businesses to national and international firms. One of the largest postcard publishers in the early 20th century was the Asheville Postcard Company, which produced images from across the United States as well as those of local scenes. The exhibition is sponsored in part by The Real Yellow Pages from BellSouth and the Rotary Club of Asheville and was organized by the Asheville Art Museum and Curated by Frank Thomson. (Images provided by Asheville Art Museum.)
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