Dear Reader,
Haunted Greetings! As we enter spooky season, I’d like to share a collection of early 20th-century Halloween postcards that are equally bewitching and frightening. In their heyday, postcards contributed to the standardization of Halloween imagery and the creation of cultural icons. They also documented supernatural rituals and magical practices that have since fallen out of fashion.
In this gallery, you’ll see jack-o-lanterns and ghosts, devils and ghouls. But you may notice that the queen of Halloween—the witch—is absent. That’s because she bewitched me into creating a separate gallery just for her and her familiars. You can see it at Witch You Were Here: Witches on Halloween Postcards.
I hope you enjoy this curious compendium of Halloween imagery from the Golden Age of Postcards.
Frightfully Yours,
Totally Historic
Halloween Postcards
Circa 1913, Toronto Public Library
Raphael Tuck & Sons, Middlebury College
1909, B. Hofmann, Middlebury College
1908, International Art. Publ. Co., NYC
1909, Ellen H. Clapsaddle, S. Garre, Middlebury College
Circa 1911, Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., Toronto Public Library
James Brundage, Printed in Germany
1909, Berndhardt Wall, Ullman Manufacturing Co., Enoch Pratt Free Library
Made in the USA
1911, John Winsch, Middlebury College
1913, E. Nash Company, Enoch Pratt Free Library
1908, H.B. Griggs, Enoch Pratt Free Library
Circa 1900, Wolf & Co., N.Y., Toronto Public Library
Toronto Public Library
1908, H.H. Ross, Middlebury College
1911, Newberry Library
1910, Newberry Library
Ellen H. Clapsaddle, International Art Publishing Co., Middlebury College
1910, Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis, Toronto Public Library
1909, Ellen H. Clapsaddle, S. Garre, Middlebury College
1911, Ellen H. Clapsaddle, International Art Publishing Co., Toronto Public Library
1908, Julius Bien & Co., New York Public Library
1908, International Art Publishing Co., Toronto Public Library
Raphael Tuck & Sons, Toronto Public Library
Alcan Moss Company, Toronto Public Library
Raphael Tuck & Sons, Enoch Pratt Free Library
1913, John Winsch, Toronto Public Library
1910, H.B. Griggs, Newberry Library
1908, H.M. Rose, The Rose Company, New York Public Library
Ellen H. Clapsaddle, Middlebury College
1923, Middlebury College
1910, H.B Griggs, Newberry Library
Circa 1910, Toronto Public Library
1914
1910, H.B Griggs, Newberry Library
1922, Whitney, Worcester, Massachusetts
Collins Malto Bread, 1908, International Art Publishing Co., New York/Berlin
Ellen H. Clapsaddle, International Art Publ. Co., New York/Berlin, Printed in Germany
1903, Bernhardt Wall, International Art Publishing Co., Enoch Pratt Free Library
Gibson & Co. (Cincinnati, Ohio), Enoch Pratt Free Library
Circa 1908, B. Hofmann; Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis, Toronto Public Library
1908, International Art Publishing Co., Toronto Public Library
Circa 1910, Toronto Public Library
Circa 1910, Missouri History Museum
1910, Newberry Library
Raphael Tuck & Sons, Toronto Public Library
Printed in Saxony, Enoch Pratt Free Library
1921, Whitney, Worcester, Massachusetts
Early 20th Century
1908, Enoch Pratt Free Library
1908, Fred C. Lounsbury, Enoch Pratt Free Library
Ellen H. Clapsaddle; Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis, Toronto Public Library
1910, A Jaeger, Enoch Pratt Free Library
Middlebury College
1910, Newberry Library
1911, Stecher Litho. Co., New York Public Library.
Middlebury College
Toronto Public Library
Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis, Toronto Public Library
Circa 1912, Gibson Art Co., Toronto Public Library
Middlebury College
1911, Newberry Library
Circa 1908, Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis, New York Public Library
George C. Whitney, Enoch Pratt Free Library
1913, Samuel Schmucker, John O. Winsch, Toronto Public Library
1908, International Art Publishing Co., Enoch Pratt Free Library
Collectors’ Guides
If you’d like to start your own collection of vintage Halloween postcards, check out the following collectors’ guides.
*The following links are Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no cost to you.
For more beautiful vintage postcards, check out the following posts:
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