Happy Birthday to Us!

The Edgewater Historical Society’s first birthday was celebrated with a party at the Annual General Meeting on March 25, 1989 at the Edgewater Branch Library.

The featured attraction of the birthday party was “Chicago Nostalgia,” a slide show of old postcards presented by John Simmons.

Commercial picture postcards emerged in 1893 with the World Columbian Exposition. Around 1900, photographic postcards were very popular. Itinerant photographers roamed America and preserved, on postcards, a record of the social life, customs and architecture of our cities and towns. Many people today collect postcards as a hobby and the collecting can be quite specialized.

Valentine and Christmas postcards used to be popular and some people collect only those. Others collect cards on railroads, parks or sports. It’s no surprise that the passion of the EHS President has been Edgewater cards.

Mr. Simmons, a collector and seller, showed many picture postcards of Chicago as it used to look. John has a running commentary that enlivens the show and many of the people in the audience “participated” with their own stories and memories evoked by the postcards.