We're sending a postcard this week from a digital road trip through Hagley Library's collection of Postcards of motels, roadside attractions, restaurants, etc. in the United States (Accession 2007.214), a small collection of 130 postcards dating from approximately 1930 to 1960.
The postcards depict motels (including motor courts and cabins), restaurants, roadside attractions, and scenic views from thirty-ones states across the United States. The postcards depict famous and notable destinations like Hollywood Boulevard and the Lincoln Memorial as well as well as regional attractions and small tourism-based businesses, like this ca. 1950 one promoting the Pyramid Village Motel in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
The motel, which is still extant (though it has since dropped it's marketing as "on of Indiana's Finest Motels" in favor of advertising itself as the "cheapest motel" in the area), was operated by Joe and Ruth Hickey until their divorce in 1955. The reverse of the postcard promised "All Rooms with Private Baths, Electric Heat Individually Controlled, Air-Cooled, Simmons Furniture, Beautyrest Mattresses, Radios. Restaurant on Premises."
To view more postcards from this collection, click here to visit its page in our Digital Archives.
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