Vintage Postcards & the "Art Colortone Method" by Curt Teich & Co.

Chances are, you've leafed through a box of vintage postcards at an antique store, flea market, or your grandparent's attic. And chances are that you came across linen postcards printed by the prolific Curt Teich & Company, founded in 1898 in Chicago. The printing presses ran for 80 years, producing over 365,000 postcards of major sites and roadside attractions throughout the U.S.

Famous for their large-letter typographic "Greetings from..." postcards featuring local scenes inside the letters (examples here, but you've definitely seen 'em), Curt Teich & Co. used vibrant color lithography to display the best the country had to offer.

I recently came across a collection of more than a hundred vintage Minnesota postcards, and many were printed by Curt Teich & Co. I was able to date them thanks to their serial numbers and the resources of the Curt Teich Postcard Archives, a small museum in Wauconda, IL.

Click the images to view full size.

Printed in 1936 - Linen, "Art Colortone Method"