"Smile: Sioux City Postcard Stories of Bands, Boxers, Barbers and More” with Dave Bishop

The Betty Strong Encounter Center will present “Smile: Sioux City Postcard Stories of Bands, Boxers, Barbers and More” with Dave Bishop at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31. Admission will be free.

    In his illustrated program, Bishop will take the audience on a “tour” of trade cards, dating from the 1880s, and vintage postcards that give glimpses of Sioux Cityans working, volunteering, participating in sports, entertaining audiences and enjoying leisure time.

      Among the 41 postcard and trade card images are a circa 1940s Sioux City Barber School group picture; a 1909 Sioux City’s Young People’s Convention; the 1907 Morningside College football team and 1910 track team.

     Bishop will show images of Sioux City boxers Teddy Sandivian and Tuffy Griffiths; the 1912 Sioux City Fire Department’s Tournament; the Sioux City Police Department; and the Second Presbyterian Church Choir.

     Marching bands, military groups, scouts and a marksman competition are among the pictures that evoke questions about dates, locations and context. For example, who are the students in the Morningside Glee Club postcard? What is the building in the background? Does anybody know the names of the people who posed for a picture in front of the Malone AME Church in May 1922?

     Particularly interesting for Warrior Hotel enthusiasts is a Dec. 22, 1934, image of the then lavish hotel’s chef and his staff.

     Businesses gave out trade cards as collectibles to encourage patrons to return to their shops,” says Bishop. “While people used postcards to convey short messages, such as, ‘I arrived safely in Sioux City,’ businesses also used them to advertise.”

     Bishop will discuss his interest in the handwritten notes on the back of many of his postcards. The program will showcase images from his extensive collection. Compiled over more than four decades, the collection peaked at about 5,000 postcards and trade cards. Each image serves up a slice of history.

     “Long before e-mails, texts and cell-phones, postcards were the way people shared images and brief messages,” says Bishop, a retired Sioux City Police Department sergeant. “Advertising was a major interest.”

    Cheaper to mail than letters, postcards began to take hold in the United States in the 1870s, first as an advertising medium.

     Writing wasn’t permitted on the address side of a postcard until March 1, 1907, the same date when divided backs were permitted. That’s why postcards prior to that time having messages written across the picture side.

     Postcards peaked in popularity during the first decade of the 20^th century. In the 12 months preceding June 30, 1908, 677 million postcards were mailed.