Catch On - A Mutoscope Card

This is not actually a postcard; it's a Mutoscope card. A Mutoscope was an early penny arcade motion- picture device. You would insert your coin and look through the stereoscope to see rapidly moving cards that gave the impression of motion - perhaps a woman getting out of a bathtub, or a view through a keyhole of a woman getting undressed. There were  other subjects on the Mutoscope, including baseball, boxing, and comedy, but the female figures seem to have been the major attraction. The Mutoscope operated on the same principle as a flipbook. The whole show consisted of about 850 cards - or about a minute's viewing.

Mutoscopes were originally manufactured from 1895 to 1909. The early Mutoscopes used black and white silver-based photographic prints. There was a revival of the Mutoscope machines, with new machines and reels being produced between 1926 and 1949. Mutoscopes were still popular in U.K. amusement parks until 1971. In England, Mutoscopes were commonly called "What the butler saw" machines, because many of them showed views through keyholes of women undressing. They were, however, very tame by today's standards.

Mutoscope cards such as this one were sold as souvenirs for about two cents each in the 40s. They are blank on the back, as they were not intended to be postcards, although sometimes they were used as such. In case you want a Mutoscope machine for your living room, you can occasionally find vintage ones in antiques stores; they range in price from $3,000-$8,000.

This card is part of the Festival of Postcards, hosted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault. This month's theme is "white." To view other postcards in the festival, click here.

Chateauroux, France

What I love about the old French postcards is that they often include scenes of daily life, people going about their daily business. I feel as though I'm looking through a window to the past. Chateauroux is located in the Centre region of France, south of Orléans, along the Indre River. The town is named after the local castle built toward the end of the 10th Century and currently has a population of about 49,000.

Ladysmith, South Africa

What makes this card special is that it shows recent damage to the City Hall in Ladysmith, South Africa from the Boer war.  The City Hall looks very much the same today, although the damage to the clock tower has long since been repaired. The cannons, Castor and Pollux, are still there though, the big difference being that when this picture was taken the cannons had been recently used.

Ladysmith was originally founded by Boer settlers in the mid 1800s, but taken over by the British just a few years later. The Boers, or Afrikaners, were European settlers (generally Dutch, and some German, but also including French Huguenots and other nationalities who adopted the Dutch language.) The Dutch settlers originally came to South Africa in the 1600s to supply the Dutch East India Co. with supplies when their boats came ashore. At the time, they had no intention of staying permanently. Later, they were joined by the French Huguenots, who were fleeing religious persecution. As time passed, they began to identify themselves with their new country and referred to themselves as Afrikaner. Although the Boers had been in South Africa since 1652, Great Britain assumed power over South Africa in 1795. Diamonds were discovered in 1867, causing a large number of people to move to South Africa from Britain and add to the tensions between British and Boers.

Ladysmith came under siege by the Boers in the Anglo-Boer War in 1899. The siege lasted four months and resulted in severe food and water shortages and disease for the inhabitants and soldiers. On February 28, 1900, the British troops broke through to Ladysmith and the siege ended.  This card clearly shows the damage to the clock tower caused by a Boer shell.

An interesting Note: The young Mahatma (then Mohandas) Ghandi served as a stretcher bearer during the aftermath of the siege.