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Pan American China Clipper Plane Flying Boat San Francisco California postcard

2/27/2014

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Pan American China Clipper Plane Flying Boat San Francisco California postcard
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The China Clipper (NC14716), a four engine Martin M 130 flying boat, flew the inaugural flight for Pan American Airlines' trans Pacific service between San Francisco and Manila in The Philippines. Taking off from Alameda CA on November 22, 1935 it island-hopped its way to Manila reaching its destination on November 29, delivering 110,000 pieces of mail along the way.

The China Clipper service opened up a new era of travel in the Pacific, permitting faster travel both for people and mail. The British were also opening up air routes across the Pacific in the mid 1930s with flying boat service to Australia and New Zealand in the South Pacific.

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Le Moulin Rouge Paris France postcard

2/25/2014

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The Moulin Rouge, circa 1905, lithographic postcard

The famous caberet, Le Moulin Rouge, established in 1889 and famous as the birthplace of the can-can dance.

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Flower Seller Marchand de Fleurs Cote D'Azur France postcard

2/22/2014

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A flower seller in traditional dress on the Cote D'Azur, France, postcard, circa 1910.

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Perfume Flower Industry Bruno Court Grasse France postcards

2/21/2014

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Slideshow of postcards issued by the Parfumerie Bruno Court, Grasse France, circa early 1900s

Grasse on the Cote D'Azur, France, is known as the world perfume capital. With its beginnings in the late 18th century it grew as a leading maker of scented perfumes based on the abundant natural flowers that were grown in the surrounding region.

Parfumerie Bruno Court was one of the perfume-making businesses in Grasse, established in 1812 to make essential oils and scented fragrances. During the course of the nineteenth century Bruno Court competed with some 80 other perfume businesses in Grasse, mostly family-owned.

As these postcards depict, production was labor intensive, drawing upon female labor in particular for flower picking in the fields and sorting and packing at the perfume factories where most often they appear to be supervised by men.

The Parfumerie Bruno Court postcards evoke an earlier age of craft production where there was still a high degree of handmade or craft work with few machines and a high degree of women's labor involved.

Around the time Bruno Court published these postcards for the tourist trade and advertising purposes in the early twentieth century, synthetic aromatic materials began to compete with the natural fragrances produced by companies like Bruno Court. After World War II, the production costs of natural fragrances were too high for the industry to meet the price expectations of consumers in the rapidly expanding mass market for perfumes.

The loss of competitiveness meant the end for many natural fragrance perfume companies as synthetics expanded market share. In 1964, The Mane Perfume company acquired Bruno Court and the latter's name disappeared from the business although Mane continued to expand, becoming the 7th largest perfume company in global sales by the early years of the twenty first century.

Grasse continues to be known as the world's perfume capital. A network of some 60 companies employing 3,500 employees produce natural raw materials and concentrate for use in perfume manufacture. This amounts to nearly half of French perfume manufacture and 6-7 percent of world production. Foreign investment has led to the loss of production as new owners relocated production abroad but Grasse has expanded its economic base by developing the closely-related food flavoring industry over the past few decades.

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Texas Motel postcards - A Sampling of Roadside America in the Lone Star State

2/19/2014

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Michigan State Auto Ferry postcards

2/16/2014

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City of Munising, one of the steamers belonging to Michigan State's Auto Ferry service, linen postcard

The state of Michigan initiated an auto ferry service in 1923 to connected the upper and lower peninsulas of the state between Mackinaw City and St Ignace. The service ran 34 years until 1957 when as part of the state law establishing the building and opening of the Mackinac bridge crossing the Mackinac Straits, the ferry service was discontinued to remove competition between the ferries and the bridge.

Some 12 million vehicles and more than 30 million passengers were ferried across the Straits of Mackinac during the Michigan State Auto Ferry years of service.

More details about the ferry service may be found here.

Full details on the ferry postcards can be found by clicking on the image above and below.

The card below shows the Auto Ferry docks at St Ignace Michigan in the 1940s.

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Pan American China Clipper Plane Flying Boat San Francisco California postcard

Le Moulin Rouge Paris France postcard

The Moulin Rouge, circa 1905, lithographic postcard

Flower Seller Marchand de Fleurs Cote D'Azur France postcard

A flower seller in traditional dress on the Cote D'Azur, France, postcard, circa 1910.

Perfume Flower Industry Bruno Court Grasse France postcards

Slideshow of postcards issued by the Parfumerie Bruno Court, Grasse France, circa early 1900s

Texas Motel postcards - A Sampling of Roadside America in the Lone Star State

Michigan State Auto Ferry postcards

City of Munising, one of the steamers belonging to Michigan State's Auto Ferry service, linen postcard

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