Minneapolis & St. Paul (Postcard History Series)

During the first half of the 20th century, communication by postcard was an inexpensive and popular means of exchanging travel stories, news, and gossip across the United States. The postcard, for just a few cents, connected friends and loved-ones separated by hundreds of miles. Today, we treasure these little correspondences of yesteryear as unique glimpses into the long-lost places of a long-gone era. Minneapolis and St. Paul in Vintage Postcards captures this historic era of Minnesota's "twin cities" through 200 classic postcard images. Inside will be found views of St. Paul's Hotel Ryan, providing a rare glimpse into a once-famous landmark that no longer stands. A picture of a solitary 1911 automobile traveling along Minneapolis' popular Lake Calhoun Drive will remind us of how one may have gone to-and-fro at the start of the last century. And the scene of a well-dressed Minnesota family at Minnehaha Falls shows us that this site was as popular among tourists in 1908, when the image was taken, as it is today.

A former resident of St. Paul, author Christopher S. Clay is an avid collector of vintage American postcards with a special interest in the history of the twin cities. This is the first publication from his vast library of twin city memorabilia.