Streetcar Sunday - Chicago, Illinois

As in many other cities around the world, Chicago started out with horse-drawn streetcars in 1859.  Many cities transitioned from the horse-drawn vehicles to electric-powered ones starting in the 1880s, but Chicago invested heavily in a cable car system instead, eventually creating the largest cable car system in the world. While cable cars have a distinct advantage in hilly cities like San Francisco, they are generally inefficient and expensive relative to electric streetcars operating with overhead wires.  Chicago didn't have the hills to warrant a cable car system, so operators began making the transition from cable to electric by the 1890s.

The streetcars thrived throughout the 1920s, but already began their decline in the '30s falling to competition from cars and buses.  In 1957, the last streetcar routes were replaced with bus routes. This postcard is likely from the early 1920s and includes a pitch for the Gray Line bus sightseeing tours: P.S. Saw this view while riding the Gray Line sightseeing car -The Best Everywhere.
Here's an earlier post that shows a double-deck sightseeing bus (though not a Gray Line) in Chicago.

Sailor Suits Saturday

A quick break from postcards today. Here's a class picture from about 1910. I don't know for sure where it's from, but I suspect it was a school in or near Binghamton, New York.

What fascinates me, besides the adorable faces of all of these children, is the number and variety of sailor suits.  According to the Fashion Industry of Design Museum blog, the sailor suit became popular, first in England and then in the United States, after Queen Victoria dressed  5-year-old Albert Edward, Prince of  Wales, in a scaled-down version of the Royal Navy uniform for a portrait. The article's author also points out that boys seemed to actually like wearing sailor suits, which was not the case with previous fashions, such as the Little Lord Fauntleroy suit.

Sail on over to Sepia Saturday for more great photos from the past.

Purple Velvet Dress

The little girl's dress on this postcard is actually soft and velvety.  Not surprisingly, the card was printed in Germany.  At the turn of the century, most of the outstanding cards were printed there.