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
Commercial Street in Provincetown, Massachusetts, bustles with life in this real photo postcard capturing the famous Cape Cod fishing village around 1915-1918. At left, a circa 1916 Cadillac touring car with its distinctive rounded radiator and brass-era headlamps sits parked beneath the hanging signs for Dr. Stalker, Dentist and Silva\'s Fish Market - the Silva name a hallmark of Provincetown\'s deep-rooted Portuguese fishing community. In the center of the narrow street, a horse-drawn wagon heaped high with a fresh catch makes its way past pedestrians in Edwardian dress, while signs for a Restaurant and Lunch Room line the wooden storefronts.
At right, another early automobile noses into the frame beside a picket fence where townsfolk gather on the sidewalk. A church steeple rises in the hazy distance, completing this remarkable time capsule of one of New England\'s most storied waterfront towns at the moment when automobiles and horse-drawn wagons still shared its famously narrow main street.
Historical Notes
Provincetown\'s Portuguese fishing families, including the Silvas whose fish market anchors this image, arrived largely from the Azores in the 19th century and came to dominate the town\'s fishing fleet. In the decades after this photo was taken, Provincetown transformed dramatically - the fishing industry gradually declined while the art colony founded by Charles Hawthorne in 1899 flourished, drawing playwright Eugene O\'Neill, whose Provincetown Players debuted on a wharf just off this very street. By mid-century, Commercial Street had become one of America\'s most celebrated bohemian destinations, and today it remains the town\'s vibrant main thoroughfare, still narrow, still lined with many of the same wooden buildings visible here. Descendants of the Portuguese fishing families are honored each June at the town\'s Portuguese Festival and Blessing of the Fleet, a tradition connecting directly back to the working waterfront world captured in this image.
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Text Present
Signs on front of image: "Dr. Stalker - Dentist", "Silva\'s Fish Market", "Restaurant", "Lunch Room", and a partial "Rooms to Let" sign at upper right.
Back: "PHOTO POST CARD", "ADDRESS", Kodak paper stamp box.
Print analysis
This is a real photo postcard printed on Kodak photographic paper. The scene itself dates to the mid-to-late 1910s based on the automobiles, clothing, and horse-drawn wagon, while the Kodak stamp box style on the reverse indicates the print was made at mid-century from the original negative. This makes it a Type 2 photographic print, circa 1950s, of a 1910s image - a genuine continuous-tone photograph, not a halftone or lithographic reproduction.
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.
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