Birthday Greetings, c. 1940s

Sweet graphic art. Lift each bouquet inside the card to find three wishes...

Brooklyn 1909 Update

Thanks to Postcardy for alerting me to this absolutely pristine version of my card, formerly on sale on eBay. I am thrilled to know that it is indeed labeled "City Hall, Brooklyn."

(Reader, I bought it!)

Brooklyn, N.Y. 1909

Thanks to Beth for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday!

I was excited when I found this torn card, because I imagined the torn part said "City Hall, Brooklyn." Which would make this a rare and special card.
Brooklyn lost its status as an independent city when it was consolidated into Greater New York in 1898 and became a borough of the big city. This card has a 1909 postmark, and an undivided back (which was discontinued in 1907). My guess is that the postcard is what every collector (of anything) dreams of finding: old store stock. The first line in the message to Miss A. B. Bell of the Lodge, Basin Harbor is "Thanks for the post-cards." Possibly these two correspondents were collectors, and knew the value of this card.
Then again, I could be way off base; could be the torn part said "City of New York, Brooklyn Borough..." Oh, boo. I like my first guess better.

  The building, built 1846-1851, was Brooklyn's city hall, and still exists as Brooklyn's Borough Hall.

I used to work at a news service not far from this building. There's a subway stop nearby that's pretty special, as you can see in these photographs. (Not to be confused with the ordinary Jay St. Boro Hall stop on the IND line.) I'll be in Brooklyn tomorrow, visiting Carol Carey, paper doll collector extraordinaire.

Convention 2010: Dress Up Night

UPDATE: Be sure to visit Marge Schaffer's blog for many rare and wonderful comic strip paper dolls.
And be sure to click image above to see detail.


For those of you who might be new to the site: The International Paper Doll Convention will be July 1-4 in Kansas City, Mo. Click on the link to the left for more information. I've been running updates for those who are attending. Hope this piques your interest for attending future conventions!

Dressing Up
Dress is casual at convention but one night is usually reserved for a themed dress-up party.
Saturday, July 3 is that night this year, and the theme is "Paper Doll Ladies and Gents of the Comics." Your inspiration can come from a comic strip or comic book: Boots, Jane Arden, Brenda Starr, Winnie Winkle, Tillie the Toiler or Archie, Betty and Veronica--and dozens of other possibilities. If only I could find a frock as fetching as Fashion Fanny's (try saying that three times!), I'd be set...  

Above: "Fashion Fanny and Her Friends/ The Paper Doll that Sets the Styles," drawn by Winifred Goodsell, appeared in the Detroit Free Press in the 1920s.

Fashion Fanny is part of the Virginia Crossley Paper Doll Collection which is being auctioned by Theriaults on June 21. Click here for more information.

Here are some other comic strip dolls from my collection that I've featured in the past:

Convention 2010: Hotel Shuttle

 

More excerpts from the Garth Lax convention e-mails. I never rent a car for convention, so I was happy to hear about the free hotel shuttle to some very interesting sites:

 

THE HOTEL SHUTTLE

 

The Convention Hotel has added a free shuttle that will take you anywhere within a three-mile radius of the Hotel, including:

 

• 45th and State Line Antiquing area
• Nelson-Atkins Art Museum
• Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
• Kansas City Art Institute
• Thomas Hart Benton Home
• Crossroads Art District
• Toy and Miniature Museum
• World Wat I Museum
• Union Station
• Hallmark Visitor Center

Featured above and below: one of the fabulous cut-outs in the Agence Eureka paper craft Flickr set

Veronica paper doll, 1962

Above, a 1962 Veronica paper doll, courtesy of KB at Out of This World. He has several others posted, including Margie and Patsy and Hedy. KB and his wife Sheila just celebrated their 27th anniversary, so congratulations to them. Of course, Sheila used to play with paper dolls when she was growing up. I bet she'd have a great time at the convention in Kansas City, which starts July 1. And KB might even find a Katy Keene comic book with paper dolls. Seems every time he tries to snag one on eBay, he's outbid. There are a lot of Katy fans out there!

 

World's Fair 1939

The Trylon and Perisphere, the classic icons of the 1939 fair. This is one of those Linen texture cards.

A very Happy Birthday to our hostess Beth at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy!