A Little History + Some Facts

 

HOW  CINCINNATI  GOT  ITS  NAME

 From 1788-1790 the first settlement in the area was called Losantiville. This name was given to the settlement by John Filson, one of the founders of Cincinnati. The name is a compilation of "L" for the Licking River, "os" from the Latin meaning "mouth", "anti" from the Greek meaning "opposite", and "ville" from Anglo-Saxon, meaning "city" or "town". This comes out as "The Town Opposite the Mouth of the Licking". Indian trouble caused the Federal government to build Fort Washington in 1789. The fort was located between Third and Fourth Sts. on the east side of Broadway. 

Not a postcard
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   In 1790 General Arthur St. Clair, the first governor of the Northwest Territory and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, did not like the name Losantiville and changed it to Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Society was named in honor of the Roman general Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. He lived in the Fifth century BC. While plowing his fields one day he was told to take command of Rome’s army. Within 15 days he led the army to victory over the enemy. He then went back to his plowing. The Society of the Cincinnati was started by, and consisted of, Continental Army officers of the American Revolution. Cincinnati was incorporated as a town on January 1, 1802. It became a city on February 5, 1819. General St. Clair called the County Hamilton in honor of the first Secretary of the Treasury of the new nation. The first Mayor Of Cincinnati was Isaac Burnet.

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Cincinnatus plowing his land.                                                   

 

CINCINNATI  FIRSTS

 

THIS AND THAT

  The area between Broadway, 6th, 7th, & Culvert Sts. around the years of the Civil War was known as Bucktown. There were so many murders at 6th & Broadway the area was called "Dead Man's Corner". By 1890 Bucktown had become almost civilized. It was written that "sometimes several nights would pass without anyone being killed" (W. P. Dabney). 
   The southwest corner of 5th and Vine was known as the "Nasty Corner" in the late 19th century. This was because there were so many saloons along that stretch that the sidewalks were filled with loiterers and drunks. Women were advised to avoid this area where they were likely to be exposed to bad language and squirts of tobacco juice. The name came from the corruption of the land owners name, Mr. Naste. The area was improved with the construction of the Carew Building (the building before the Carew Tower was built).
   The area of Broadway and Front Streets was known as Battle Row because of many fights that started in the Silver Moon Saloon and spilled out into the street.
   The area where the Playhouse in the Park stands was known as Butcher's Hill . This was the area where the Mount Adams gangs fought the Fulton gangs, (Fulton was where the shipyards for building the steamboats were located). The name probably came from the fact that it overlooked the valley of Deer Creek, where the slaughter houses were. Those factories gave Deer Creek the nickname of Bloody Run, (which gave the name to Bloody Run Road, later renamed Victory Parkway after WWI.
   The Bluff above Deer Creek, west of Reading Road, was called Goat Hill because some of the people living there raised goats. Nanny Goat Hill and Billy Goat Hill were the names given to two higher knobs of land in that area.
   The western part of the levee along the Ohio was called Bratwurst Row when it was primarily a German Settlement. It was changed to Sausage Row after The Irish moved in. The eastern part of the levee was called Rat Hole Row, where the stevedores and steamboat workers lived. O'Bryonville was first called Dutchtown before the area turned from German to Irish in nature.
   Stretched along the Ohio Bank east of downtown were Pendleton, Fleettown, and Fulton, in that order. Beyond them were Columbia, Tusculum, and Linwood, which retained their names. Pendleton, near Sawyer Point, was built around the roundhouse of the Little Miami Railroad. Fleettown was where the riverboats tied up for repair, and Fulton was where the shipyards for building the steamboats were located.
   Frenchman's Corner and Goosetown were neighborhoods around Spring Grove And Hamilton Ave. Wooden Shoe Hollow was on lower Winton Road near Spring Grove Cemetery. Areas of Cumminsville were called Gary Owen and Hammeltown. Kay's Corner became Peeble's Corner.

 

CHANGING  STREET  NAMES

Broadway was first called Eastern Row.
Sycamore St. is called that because of a large sycamore tree that stood on the Ohio River bank at the foot of the street. 
Walnut Street was originally called Cider Street.
Central Avenue was known as Western Row.
Reading Road was Hunt Street.
12th Street east of Main was called Abigail.
13th Street east of Main was called Woodward.
14th Street between Vine and and Main was called Allison.
Woodward Street was Franklin.
Yukon was Hanover Street
McMicken was Hamilton Road.
Lang Street was Locust Street.
Frintz was Oak Street.
Stonewall was Hamburg Street.
German Street to English Street.
Bismarck Street to Montreal Street.
Berlin Street to Woodrow Street.
Brunswick Street to Edgecliff Point.
Frankfort Street to Connecticut Street.
Hanover Street to Yukon Street.
Hapsburg Street to Merimac Street.
Schumann Street to Meredith Street.
Vienna Street to Panama Street
Humboldt Street to Taft Road.

   When they changed the name of Bremen Street to Republic Street during WWI they could not spell Republic.

 

DELTIOLOGY

   The collecting of postcards is known as Deltiology. In 1945 professor Randall Rhoades of Ashland, Ohio gave the postcard hobby its official name. It is a combination of the Greek words "DELTION" meaning a small picture and "LOGOS" meaning the science or knowledge of a subject.

STANDARD  RATE  FOR  U.S.  POSTCARDS

POSTCARD  SHOP  LOCATIONS

    A  SHORT  HISTORY OF  THE  POSTCARD  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES

PIONEER  ERA  (1867 - 1898)

   The Pioneer period predates the officially sanctioned private postcards. They are only rarely labeled Postcard or Post Card on the stamp side, but may be called Souvenir or Mail Card. Do not confuse Postal Cards (cards issued by the Post Office) with Postcards. Pioneer cards did not qualify for the one-cent postage rate that applied to the government issued Postal Cards, Pioneer cards required a 2 cent adhesive stamp. Although there were earlier scattered issues, most pioneer cards in today's collections begin with the cards placed  on sale at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois on May 1, 1893. These were illustrations on government printed postal cards and on privately printed souvenir cards. Writing was not permitted on the address side of the card.

PRIVATE  MAILING  CARD  ERA  (1898 - 1901)

   On May 19, 1898 private printers were granted permission, by an act of congress, to print and sell cards that bore the inscription 'Private Mailing Card'. The law went into effect on July 1, 1898.Today we call these cards 'PMC's'. Postage was now only a 1 cent adhesive stamp. Note that some of these cards are Pioneers that were overprinted or reprinted to conform to the new Postal Regulations. Many American printers began to take postcards seriously. Writing was still not permitted on the address side, however many publishers often left a wide border on the side or bottom of the view side so a short message could be added.

POSTCARD  ERA  (1901 - 1907)

   The use of the word 'POST CARD' was granted by the government to private printers on December 4, 1901. In this era private citizens began to take black and white photographs and have them printed on paper with post card backs. Writing was still not permitted on the address side.

UNDIVIDED  BACK  ERA  (1893 - 1907)

   The above three eras can also be grouped into the general heading of 'undivided back'. The United States Post Office Dept. required "nothing but the address" on the back of postcards during this period, so people had to write any messages on the front or picture side.

DIVIDED  BACK  ERA  (1907 - 1914)

  Post cards with a divided back, that is with a vertical line down the middle, were permitted starting March 1, 1907. The address to be written on the right side and written messages to be on the left. Many millions of cards were printed during this period. Up until this point most cards had been printed in Germany who were far ahead of this country in the lithographic processes. With the advent of World War One, the supply of post cards had to come from England and the United States.

WHITE  BORDER  ERA  (1915 - 1930)

   Up until the first world war postcards were mainly printed overseas in Germany using the lithograph process which resulted in very beautiful cards. After WWI started all production from overseas, of course, ceased. Most of our post cards were printed in the USA during this period. To save ink, and to make them look more like photographs people were familiar with, a border was left around the view thus we classify them as 'White Border' cards. High cost of labor, inexperience and public taste caused the production of poor quality cards. High competition in a narrowing market caused many publishers to go out of business. Many later cards also had white borders, but it was in this period that the style was introduced and became fashionable.

LINEN  ERA  (1930 - 1945)

   New printing processes allowed printing on post cards with a high rag content that caused a 'linen like' finish. These cheap cards allowed the use of gaudy dyes for coloring. The firm of Curt Teich flourished with their line of linen postcards. Many important events in history were recorded on these cards. Other types of cards were produced during this period, but the Linen was numerically dominant.

PHOTO CHROME  ERA  (1939 TO PRESENT)

   The 'chrome' post cards started to dominate the market soon after they were launched by the Union Oil Company in their western service stations in 1939. Mike Roberts pioneered with his 'WESCO' cards soon after World War II. They tend to be glossy and slick in appearance. Most are printed in color although some are black and white. Chrome is derived from Kodachrome. Three dimensional post cards also appeared in this era.

CONTINENTAL ERA (1970 TO PRESENT)

   The Continental card is made by the same process as the Chrome cards, but are larger. Almost all cards before this were using the standard postcard size of about 3.5 x 5.5 inches. The newer Continental cards are 4 x 6 inches. Continental cards pretty well dominate the market today.

   The above classifications should not be considered as hard and fast rules. There are exceptions to each classification. They should be considered as clues to when a card was published, but are not sufficient in themselves to date any card with certainty.

DATING  REAL  PHOTOS

   Real Photo postcards started around 1902 with the introduction of the Kodak No. 3a Folding Pocket Kodak. The camera used postcard-size film that were developed on to paper with postcard backs. and have been used continuously to this day. They are distinguished from commercially printed photographic images by being printed on photograph paper with a preprinted postcard back. Real photo postcards are more desirable than commercially printed cards. the majority of real photos are one of a kind, while commercially produced cards were produced in large quantities. One way to tell if a card is a real photo or not is by using a magnifying glass. Most picture postcards were made from photographs, but they have been printed by other processes, commonly lithography. Lithographs are screened (made up of small dots). Real photos have a continuous gradation. There are however, printing processes that produce photographic reproductions without the dot-pattern of a screen, such as the Albertype method. Usually a real photo, without a stamp, can be dated within a range of years by the design of the stamp box. Here are some of the earliest inscriptions.

THE  STAMP

We must not forget about the stamp, after all without this little piece of paper our postcard would not get very far.

A  Little  Ditty

There was a little postage stamp,
   No bigger than your thumb,  
But still it stuck right on the job
   Until its work was done.   
They licked it and pounded it  
Till it would make you sick! 
But the more it took the licking  
   The tighter it would stick.    
Let's all be like the postage stamp
   In playing Life's big game,   
And stick to what we know is right
   Then we can't miss our aim.