Vintage Tea Room Postcards
From Mystic Tea Room
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- | [[File:Copper-Kettle-Tea-Room Los-Angeles-Postcard-Front-1.jpg| | + | [[File:Copper-Kettle-Tea-Room Los-Angeles-Postcard-Front-1.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Copper Kettle Tea Room, 23 Mercantile Place, Los Angeles, California, postcard front, circa 1909. The hand-lettered caption on the black and white photo that was the basis for this card reads "Copper Kettle Inn," but that is an error, because all advertising ephemera and references to the establishment in contemporary newspapers and magazines identify it as the Copper Kettle Tea Room. The Copper Kettle opened in 1908 under the proprietorship of two sisters, Smith college alumna Harriet Morris (1880 - 1961) and Barnard College alumna Mildred Morris, helped by their friend Beatrice Wigmore. In addition to tea and light lunches, The Copper Kettle sold Japanese and Chinese basketry and gift wares; by 1915 they were also marketing confections or candies that were sold along the Southern Pacific Railroad route. The building that housed The Copper Kettle -- and, in fact, every shop on both sides of the street, and the entirety of Mercantile Place itself -- was demolished in 1923 as part of a large urban high-rise building program.]] |
- | The beginning of the tea room movement happened to coincide with | + | The beginning of the tea room movement happened to coincide with the postcard craze, which was in full flower from 1905 until World War One. (If you are unfamiliar with the tea room movement, you can learn more about it in the page on [[Tea Room History]].) |
- | Postcard stamps only cost one cent back then, so in some some tea rooms, when you sat down to order, a pre-stamped postcard showing the room in which you were seated accompanied the menu, and you were encouraged to write a message and mail it to a friend. Thus, today's postcard collectors find many tea room cards with messages on the back that read something like this: | + | Even after the postcard craze waned a bit during the 1920s, many tea rooms kept on printing postcards, as they had learned that illustrated mailing cards were an inexpensive way to boost their business. Postcard stamps only cost one cent back then, so in some some tea rooms, when you sat down to order, a pre-stamped postcard showing the room in which you were seated accompanied the menu, and you were encouraged to write a message and mail it to a friend. Thus, today's postcard collectors find many tea room cards with messages on the back that read something like this: |
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''Hello, Edith —'' | ''Hello, Edith —'' | ||
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On this site you will find many, many interior and exterior views of quaint, old-fashioned tea rooms, as well as the backs of cards, some with messages and some simply indicating the name of the printer or additional information about the tea room. A few of them are photographic prints, but most take the form of postcards. | On this site you will find many, many interior and exterior views of quaint, old-fashioned tea rooms, as well as the backs of cards, some with messages and some simply indicating the name of the printer or additional information about the tea room. A few of them are photographic prints, but most take the form of postcards. | ||
- | Dating postcards can be a little tricky. There are | + | Dating postcards can be a little tricky. There are five basic ways to date a card: |
- | + | * By Era of Manufacture | |
+ | * By Copyright, Postal Code, Publisher, or Series Number | ||
+ | * By Automobile Models, Clothing Fashions, and Signage | ||
+ | * By Back-of-Card Postmarks, Fontography, and Handwriting | ||
+ | * By Census, City Directory, Newspaper, and Magazine Research | ||
- | + | If you want to learn about how these techniques are combined to date a postcard or, more importantly, to date when the photograph was taken, please visit our detailed page on [[Dating Tea Room Postcards]]. | |
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==Tea Room Postcard Index== | ==Tea Room Postcard Index== | ||
- | + | Our Gallery allows you to browse for vintage tea rooms alphabetically, first by State or Nation, then by tea room name. | |
Please note that as we build this site, not every state will have a tea room. Watch us grow! | Please note that as we build this site, not every state will have a tea room. Watch us grow! |
Revision as of 00:56, 14 September 2020
The beginning of the tea room movement happened to coincide with the postcard craze, which was in full flower from 1905 until World War One. (If you are unfamiliar with the tea room movement, you can learn more about it in the page on Tea Room History.)
Even after the postcard craze waned a bit during the 1920s, many tea rooms kept on printing postcards, as they had learned that illustrated mailing cards were an inexpensive way to boost their business. Postcard stamps only cost one cent back then, so in some some tea rooms, when you sat down to order, a pre-stamped postcard showing the room in which you were seated accompanied the menu, and you were encouraged to write a message and mail it to a friend. Thus, today's postcard collectors find many tea room cards with messages on the back that read something like this:
Hello, Edith —
We found this wonderful
little place on the way
to the Falls — Maybe
you can come along next
time and we'll stop here
to eat. The view is lovely
and the food is great.
— Mabel
Contents |
Dating Tea Room Postcards
On this site you will find many, many interior and exterior views of quaint, old-fashioned tea rooms, as well as the backs of cards, some with messages and some simply indicating the name of the printer or additional information about the tea room. A few of them are photographic prints, but most take the form of postcards.
Dating postcards can be a little tricky. There are five basic ways to date a card:
- By Era of Manufacture
- By Copyright, Postal Code, Publisher, or Series Number
- By Automobile Models, Clothing Fashions, and Signage
- By Back-of-Card Postmarks, Fontography, and Handwriting
- By Census, City Directory, Newspaper, and Magazine Research
If you want to learn about how these techniques are combined to date a postcard or, more importantly, to date when the photograph was taken, please visit our detailed page on Dating Tea Room Postcards.
Tea Room Postcard Index
Our Gallery allows you to browse for vintage tea rooms alphabetically, first by State or Nation, then by tea room name.
Please note that as we build this site, not every state will have a tea room. Watch us grow!
Any nation outside the USA (e.g. Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, Italy) is listed by a nation-name instead of a state-name. If a given nation accumulates more than 16 tea room postcards, i will break the nation into provinces, counties, or districts and move the images into those named pages.
Because the primary focus here is on Anglophone nations (whose inhabitants are the primary users of fortune-telling tea cups and the primary frequenters of tea rooms), i think we'll be lucky if we find more than 4 tea rooms in any given European nation -- and most of these will have been pre-WWI establishments, created for the convenience of British and American tourists. This is obvious in the fact that even in European nations, the term "Tea Room" often appears on signage, rather than, or alongside of, an indigenous term like "Tee Stube")
Tea Rooms of the United States
- Alabama Tea Rooms
- Alaska Tea Rooms
- Arizona Tea Rooms
- Arkansas Tea Rooms
- California Tea Rooms
- Colorado Tea Rooms
- Connecticut Tea Rooms
- Delaware Tea Rooms
- Florida Tea Rooms
- Georgia Tea Rooms
- Hawaii Tea Rooms
- Idaho Tea Rooms
- Illinois Tea Rooms
- Indiana Tea Rooms
- Iowa Tea Rooms
- Kansas Tea Rooms
- Kentucky Tea Rooms
- Louisiana Tea Rooms
- Maine Tea Rooms
- Maryland Tea Rooms
- Massachusetts Tea Rooms
- Michigan Tea Rooms
- Minnesota Tea Rooms
- Mississippi Tea Rooms
- Missouri Tea Rooms
- Montana Tea Rooms
- Nebraska Tea Rooms
- Nevada Tea Rooms
- New Hampshire Tea Rooms
- New Jersey Tea Rooms
- New Mexico Tea Rooms
- New York Tea Rooms
- North Carolina Tea Rooms
- North Dakota Tea Rooms
- Ohio Tea Rooms
- Oklahoma Tea Rooms
- Oregon Tea Rooms
- Pennsylvania Tea Rooms
- Rhode Island Tea Rooms
- South Carolina Tea Rooms
- South Dakota Tea Rooms
- Tennessee Tea Rooms
- Texas Tea Rooms
- Utah Tea Rooms
- Vermont Tea Rooms
- Virginia Tea Rooms
- Washington Tea Rooms
- West Virginia Tea Rooms
- Wisconsin Tea Rooms
- Wyoming Tea Rooms
Tea Rooms of the British Commonwealth
Tea Rooms of Europe
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
See Also
- Tea Room History
- Vintage Tea Room Postcards