#PostcardRoadTrip

At more than half a million unique images, the massive size of our Curt Teich Postcard Archives Collection is a big part of what makes it so useful - and so overwhelming.

To the rescue comes Will Hansen, the Newberry's Curator of Americana, who provides a guided tour through some collection highlights in our new #PostcardRoadTrip digital resource. Originally featured as a series on his Twitter account, postcard images of Will's favorite roadside attractions and amusement parks can now be accessed in this interactive map recently released by the Newberry's Digital Initiatives and Services Department.

Conceived as a way to virtually visit both new and familiar destinations, the project took on an element of time travel, as Will explained to us:

"I wasn't going to do a lot of traveling this summer and I sort of missed that, so I decided that since we've got this great new collection of postcards, I can travel vicariously through them… My favorite place that I visited in the #postcardroadtrip is probably House on the Rock in Wisconsin, which is a wonderful crazy pseudo-amusement park / pseudo-museum / pseudo-roadside attraction in Wisconsin, I've been there in person and I love it. A lot of the places in the postcards, like the two Chicago amusement parks that I included, no longer exist, so it's fun to imagine what it would have been like to visit even if you can't anymore."

In addition to the #Postcard Road Trip site, users can plan road trips of their own - or just browse the thousands of digital images - at our Curt Teich Postcard Archives Digital Collection.

By Jen Wolfe, Digital Initiatives Manager