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A 5.5x3.5" vintage RPPC photo postcard from the estate of a vintage automobile postcard collector. This was part of a huge collection of antique postcards.
Photo Overview
This real photo postcard captures a wonderful slice of early American farm life around 1910 - a complete steam threshing outfit on the move along a dirt country road. At the left, a steam traction engine leads the caravan, its crew standing atop the machine under a canvas canopy, towing a plow rig behind it. Following in line are a wooden cook shack (bunk house) wagon on wheels, a cylindrical water tank wagon, and a high-sided grain wagon.
Anchoring the right side of the frame is a brass-era touring car, its folding top down, wearing license plate number 503 on the front. The car's fender lines, wooden-spoke wheels, and open touring body are consistent with a circa 1910-1912 machine such as a Ford Model T touring or a similar brass-era automobile. The pairing of steam power, horse-drawn wagons, and a gasoline automobile in a single image makes this a striking snapshot of a transportation era in transition on the Great Plains.
Historical Notes
Traveling threshing outfits like this one were a fixture of the American wheat belt from the 1890s through the 1920s. Crews followed the harvest from farm to farm, and the cook shack wagon seen here housed and fed the men through weeks on the road. Within roughly fifteen years of this photo, the steam traction engine at the head of this caravan would be rendered obsolete by lightweight gasoline tractors, and by the 1930s the combine harvester ended the custom threshing circuit altogether. The touring car at the right of the frame was the harbinger of that change - the same internal combustion revolution that put the automobile in farmers' hands would soon sweep steam power from the fields entirely. Surviving real photo postcards of complete threshing caravans in transit, especially ones that also capture an identifiable brass-era automobile, are prized by both steam engine enthusiasts and early motoring collectors.
Browse our complete RPPC Photo Postcard photograph collection.
Text Present
On the front, the automobile's license plate reads: 503
On the back, printed: POST CARD / CORRESPONDENCE HERE / NAME AND ADDRESS HERE / PLACE STAMP HERE (within an AZO stamp box)
Handwritten in pencil at upper right of back: 75
Print analysis
This is an original Type 1 real photo postcard, printed on AZO photographic paper. The AZO stamp box with four upward-pointing triangles dates the paper to the 1904-1918 period, which matches the circa 1910 subject matter perfectly. This is a period photographic print made at or very near the time the image was taken.
Condition
All postcards we sell are in fair to excellent vintage condition. Please see photos for any tears, folds, smudges, or other age damage that may be present.
