WPA Yellowstone postcard: Postcard Friendship Friday

Today is Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Today's postcard in the series of paint-by-number - err I mean WPA posters is Yellowstone National Park. Giving credit where credit is due:

The back of this card says:"Works Progress Administration (WPA) circa 1939, Artist Unknown. Between 1935 and 1943 the WPA's Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public's imagination for education, theater, health, safety, and travel. Due to their fragile nature only two thousand posters have survived. The National Park image shown here is also available in the original poster format from many National Park bookstores."
Published by Ranger Doug Enterprises. (1-888-972-7678) Seattle, WA.

Now this one has great graphics! This, of course, is Old Faithful one of the most famous geysers in the park, and perhaps the world.

There is a webcam for Old Faithful: http://mms.nps.gov/yell/webcams/old_faithful_cam.htm

Yellowstone Park is open every day of the year but it looks pretty snowy right now.

Average times between eruptions is about 94 minutes presently but this varies a bit. It depends on the length of the previous eruption, for one thing. Small earthquakes in the park seem to affect the 'plumbing' under the ground and change Old Faithful's behavior also.

The National Parks Service at Yellowstone has a great website at http://www.nps.gov/yell/.

viridian

Postcard Friendship Friday: Bryce Canyon

Today is Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the Best Hearts are Crunchy.

I don't have an Earth Day postcard, but here is a postcard of one of the most amazing parks in the American West (Arches is up there for me too!) Oh heck, they are all amazing. This postcard is actually a new design following the design of the old WPA posters. The artists are Doug Leen and Brian Maebius. I like the receding cliffs and the changes in color, and the artfully placed pine trees.

My previous post describes this series.

Bryce Canyon, according the National Park Service, is a small national park in southwestern Utah. Named after the Mormon Pioneer Ebenezer Bryce, Bryce Canyon became a national park in 1928. The rock type here is actually limestone, not sandstone as I originally thought. The spires of rock seen in Bryce are called hoodoos and are formed by weathering and erosion.

Viridian

PFF: Zion National Park

The back of this card says:"Works Progress Administration (WPA) circa 1939, Artist Unknown. Between 1935 and 1943 the WPA's Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public's imagination for education, theater, health, safety, and travel. Due to their fragile nature only two thousand posters have survived. The National Park image shown here is also available in the original poster format from many National Park bookstores."

Published by Ranger Doug Enterprises. (1-888-972-7678) Seattle, WA.

I purchased this card and a number of others in this series at the bookstore at the main ranger station in Zion National Park. It was two years ago, and I just found the postcards tucked inside a book of Utah geology. I'll be featuring these cards over the next few weeks. I just love the graphics and the colors.

Someone participating in PFF showed a postcard from Hawaii National Park from Ranger Doug in their previous post. If it's you, please speak up!

It was a beautiful sunny day to walk around Zion, two Aprils ago. But boy it got cold at night - we woke up to snow flurries covering our tents!

Postcard friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at the Best Hearts are Crunchy.

viridian

Happy PFF - History in a postcard

To Mrs. Harry Sommerfeld, Lohrville Iowa (rural route)
Postmarked Long ? April 9 1917
Dear Lillie:
How are you? I am just fine. Nearly every-body is done with the vats(?) Had a snow Sat. afternoon and a big freeze the last two nights. What do you think of the war? Looks very serious. People are all worked up about it around here. Did you start some goose berries plants for us. If you did send by parcel post and will pay you the postage. Corn was 1.18 Sat. eggs 20p. Good stuff is taking a jump. Ans .soon Rita

I knew from the postmark that Rita was talking about WWI – the Great War. After doing some research (OK, just Wikipedia) I realized there was much about the war I did not know. And the date of this card will be significant.

Many socio-political events contributed to the war, though the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in July 1914 is considered to be the trigger. Various alliances were invoked so soon “The conflict opened with the German invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg and France; the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia and a Russian attack against Prussia." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I

Later the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and Romania joined the war. In March 1917 the Tsar abdicated and a provisional government continued with the war. Conditions in Russia were chaotic.

The United States followed an isolationist policy. However there were some cases of suspected German sabotage in the USA. There were increasing U-boat attacks on shipping. And then there was the Zimmermann telegram. Gosh, I must have been asleep that day in history class. Or they skipped right over it.

In January 1917 “British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory [Texas, New Mexico, Arizona] to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history.” (http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann/).

However, the Brits waited until February to tell President Wilson, and news didn’t hit the papers until March 1 1917. Public outrage ensued.

On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies. No wonder the talk was all about the war among Rita’s friends and neighbors.

Another note about April 1917. Lenin at that time was in Zurich, Switzerland, but with the abdication of the Tsar, he had decided to return to Russia. But how, with the Great War raging all through Europe? Therefore the sealed train, traveling through Germany to the Finland Station in Petrograd (once Leningrad, now St. Petersburg). And so, after a number of events, the October Revolution that year and changing history, again.

Lenin left Zurich on April 2, 1917, arriving in Petrograd April 16.

And as in my postcard that mentions the Berlin Wall, the mundane is intertwined with the historical. Rita asks about gooseberry plants, and gives an update on farm prices.

I am joining Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy for Postcard Friendship Friday. Please see who else is joining her today.

Viridian

Cherry Blossom Time

This postcard arrived in my mailbox recently, from a Postcrosser from Osaka, Japan. She wrote that she was looking forward to cherry blossom time, which sounds very beautiful. How wonderful is it that she sent me a a delicate image, and added two stamps featuring cherry blossoms on the reverse?

Modifying my stamp rant a bit, could I do something like this with international air mail stamps? No. With domestic postage stamps? Maybe, if I buy Post Office products described in a previous post. Kelp Forest postcards, with added Kelp Forest or lighthouse stamps, for example.

Viridian

Postcard Friendship Friday - Easter edition

It's Easter weekend and time to join Beth at the Best Hearts are Crunchy for Postcard Friendship Friday.

I have postcard with a historical tie-in for next week - come back and you will see the date is important.

For this week, I did not have a antique, or vintage, or even recent Easter postcard. So, I went to a local antique store with a number of booths and found this card. I'm following the theme of many posters of hens, chicks, and eggs.

viridian