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October 31, 2019 By Nancy H. Vest 6 Comments

Vintage Halloween Post Cards for Your Treat Today

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The prompt this week for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is Trick or Treat. I am treating you with my small collection of vintage Halloween post cards.

Where did they come from?

These post cards belonged to my first cousin, twice removed Myrtle Virginia HILLARD BURROUGHS (5 July 1903-24 Sept 1977). Myrtle was the first cousin of my grandmother, Goldie Isabel PRICE HEISER (1893-1919). Myrtle was an only child, and she and her husband didn’t have any children of their own.

My dad and Myrtle were more like siblings than cousins since they were only ten years apart in age, so when Myrtle passed my dad inherited all of her belongs including a collection of post cards received by her, her parents, and her husband over the years. These Halloween cards, all postmarked between 1900-1910, come from that collection.  

Enjoy!

Color post card of a witch chasing a boy through a field filled with jack-o-lanterns. The jack-o-lanterns have a variety of faces, from scared to amused. The boy looked terrified.
Even some of the jack-o-lanterns looked scared in this one!
Color post card of a jack-o-lantern man holding a ball of yarn with a string from the yarn attached to the tooth of jack-o-lantern sitting in an outdoor open furnace. The one in the furnace looks alarmed.
It looks like the pumpkin head man is attempting to pull a tooth from the jack-o-lantern in the fire pit. Bizarre!
Color post care of two boys helping another boy put on a Halloween costume consisting of a sheet, a jack-o-lantern mounted on a stick, and a witches hat on the jack-o-lantern.
This is the tamest of the bunch. Just kids being kids.
Color post card of a devil dressed in all red pulling a Christmas cracker toy with a pumpkin head man. There is also a burning candle in a candlestick on the background.
As my daughter said when she saw this one:
I’m not really sure how I feel about this picture.  

What do you think of these post cards? Do you have any vintage Halloween memorabilia? Please comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Copyright © 2019 Nancy H. Vest   All Rights Reserved

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Comments

  1. Virginia Allain says

    October 31, 2019 at 4:45 pm

    These are delightful. So glad your family saved them.

    Reply
    • Nancy H. Vest says

      October 31, 2019 at 5:48 pm

      I’m glad you enjoyed them. She saved many treasures, but probably didn’t know we’d treasure them, too.

      Reply
  2. Brian H. says

    November 4, 2019 at 8:56 pm

    A terrific set of cards. Halloween is a relatively new celebration in Australia so I haven’t seen it spelt as ‘Hallowe’en’ before. Is that the traditional spelling?

    Reply
    • Nancy H. Vest says

      November 5, 2019 at 10:09 am

      Thanks, Brain. Here’s a little background on the spelling of Halloween/Hallowe’en from the Miriam-Webster Dictionary. I didn’t know the history of the spelling either until I looked this up when you asked. Now I know!

      Origin of Halloween Spelling
      Oh dear, you may think, there’s one of those errant apostrophes that slobs sprinkle throughout the language. Why would the dictionary give in and enter that apostrophized monstrosity? Surprise: that apostrophe is actually original to the word.

      When Halloween first came into written use in English, October 31 wasn’t the linguistic focus—November 1 was. In the western Christian liturgical calendar, November 1 is All Saints’ Day, a feast day to honor all the Christian saints. But All Saints’ Day wasn’t called All Saints’ Day until the 16th century. Prior to that, it was known by the name we borrowed from Old English: All Hallows’ Day or All Hallows’. Hallow comes from the Old English adjective hālig, which means “holy.”

      All Hallows’ used to be a bigger deal—one 17th-century source notes that “the three grand days are All-hallown, Candlemass, and Ascension day”—and since important feast days usually started the night before with a vigil, the evening before All Hallows’ gained its own notoriety as All Hallows’ Even or All Hallows’ Eve. All Hallows’ Even was shortened to Hallow-e’en by the 16th century. The word Hallowe’en began to lose its apostrophe in the 18th century, though we still have some evidence for the apostrophized version.

      Reply
  3. Barb LaFara says

    November 5, 2019 at 1:37 pm

    What a terrific collection. I have a few cards that have been saved and passed along, but none as old as these! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Nancy H. Vest says

      November 5, 2019 at 1:55 pm

      You’re welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed them.

      Reply

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