Remember Sadie, my grandmother who homesteaded in Montana? My sister recently went through an old trunk of Sadie's and discovered that Grandma hoarded a lot of the postcards she received throughout her life. Among those post cards were two very old ones that were made of leather. Leather postcards were something neither my sister nor I, even knew were a thing, but I guess in the early days of the 1900’s, leather postcards had become a very popular fad.
The first leather postcards started showing up in 1903. One of those in Sadie’s old trunk was postmarked 1906. Leather postcards were made of deer hide, and the drawings and lettering where burnt into the leather, using hot metal tools. Making leather postcards became a popular craft with the ladies. Some leather postcards had holes perforated along their sides, so that they could be easily stitched together to make decorative pillows.
Because the buckskin was so soft, in 1909 the US Postal Service banned leather postcard from being mailed, because their flexible leather clogged up the sorting machines that were beginning to be used.
Hey Grandma, who was this Jim character who sent you the card?
View my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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