From Natural Bridges to Bird Rock: An Exploration Through Vintage Postcards and Photographs

In the early 1900s, Charles Leon Aydelotte photographed a natural bridge carved by wave erosion into the cliffs near the foot of what is now Columbia Avenue in Santa Cruz, California. Over the next decade or so, several postcard publishers used the photograph, colorizing it and changing it in various ways during the “Golden Age” of the picture postcard. A doctored photograph by publisher Edward H. Mitchell shows how the image was altered and also demonstrates the shortcomings of using postcards in documenting history.

Background

The first two decades of the twentieth century witnessed the widespread adoption of many technological advancements: airplanes, automobiles, motion pictures, electric lights, telephones, and radios. Not often included on his list, but especially important from a social and communications standpoint was the picture postcard. The decade before World War I is widely regarded as the “Golden Age” of the picture postcard.