These three-dimensional “pop-up” postcards were printed in Germany by the Winsch Publishing Company of Stapleton, New York. The Winsch Publishing Company produced thousands of postcards from 1910 to 1915, designed primarily by artist Samuel Schmucker. This one from 1911 reads, “Glad Thanks-Giving Wishes. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving” and features a Native American woman bearing a basket of apples and a (deceased) turkey.

Winsch Publishing utilized such stereotypes in their imagery to evoke patriotic sentiments, touting the Native American female as the symbol of the bountiful nation. With her beaded dress, wild turkey, and raw fruits and vegetables, she called forth nostalgic visions of rural America in the minds of white viewers likely to purchase holiday postcards.

Another pop-up postcard features a white homemaker in an apron and bonnet. Her milkmaid attire, idealized log cabin, and sidekick turkey suggest a domesticated, tamed American landscape. On the backside, an undated, handwritten note from an American woman urges her sister to “come down” on Thursday for “gobbler.”

 

 

Glad Thanks-Giving wishes and bounty be thine from all of us in Special Collections.

 

Sources

Middlebury College Special Collections & Archives, C-132 Historic Postcards.

Gifford, Daniel. American Holiday Postcards, 1905-1915: Imagery and Context. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2013.