Thanks to All of You

I learn a lot from this blog, mostly by researching the posts and reading your comments. You often see or know things that I don't. I also learn a fair amount from Statcounter, which tallies the number of visitors per day, where they came from, and what search words may have led them here. From these numbers, I can see that there were just under 40,000 unique visitors last year and over 76,000 page views, and that nearly 60% came from the United States, but the rest came from over 40 other countries, including Bulgaria and Libya (Hi Muamar!)

Top Three Blog Posts
But those are just numbers. I'm always interested (and often baffled) to see which pages are the most popular. Alas, they are never my favorites. In fact, it's safe to say that my favorites are generally the least popular. Here are the top three most visited pages:
1. Princess Grace and Prince Rainier
2. Sepia Saturday - Vintage Bicycle Racing
3. Victor Bicycles - Overman Wheel Co.

I think it's fair to say that the Princess Grace card got thousands of views only because it was featured in the online version of Vanity Fair with a link back to this blog. I'm not surprised by the popularity of the bicycle pictures. They will always be popular.
But, if I had to choose my three five favorites,  it would have been these:
1. Tracy Has A Headache
2. Whatever Happened to Hazel Vera Holbrook?
3. Don't Tell the Beauty Parlor
4. Streetcar Sunday - Robbery in Troy, New York
5. From Paris to Miss Annette Markoe

Unusual Searches
I am surprised by some of the more unusual searches that lead to this blog, including:
How to draw the Golden Gate Bridge
Maternity corsets
and most recently, Slovak Christmas greetings.

A few other notable blog happenings of 2010:

1. Tracking the postcard story of Tracy Graham from Delhi, New York eventually led me to his daughter Bernice, who is alive and well and knew nothing of these postcards.  I was as thrilled to return the cards to her as she was to receive them. Since then, she also sent me a very beautiful serving tray with the image of a vintage postcard on it. 
2. A video production company from the U.K. contacted me and requested a higher resolution scan of the Portstewart tram to use in one of their productions.  I haven't seen it, but the film is entitled Lisbon Trams - A Driver's Eye View. Portstewart is in Ireland, not Portugal, so I guess I won't know what the connection is unless I watch the video.
3. I also received a request from a soon-to-be-opening waterworks museum in Boston for copies of whatever Boston cards I have. I'm not sure I have anything that will be useful to them, but I sent them what I had.

I hope this blog has kept you entertained in 2010, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your visits and comments throughout the year.  If there is something you would like to see here in 2011, please let me know.

Bonne Année with a Shadow

It's hard to celebrate the New Year with joy and abandon if you have a son, husband, brother or father fighting in a war. These French cards from World War I both show soldiers in the background. In the first one, 'The Dream', a woman envisions her husband in battle, with an angel flying above. She appears to be writing in a diary. Note the inkwell and the rolling blotter at the front of the desk.

The second portrays a hopeful boy in the basket of an air balloon, with soldiers on the field below.

Here are the backs of the cards.

Streetcar Sunday - Auckland, New Zealand - Update

As with most other cities, Auckland initially had horse-drawn trams in 1884. These were replaced with electric trams by 1902, which continued to provide service until the end of 1956, when they were replaced with buses and trolleybuses. Since then, Auckland has had very low levels of transit ridership compared to other cities of similar size - but change is in the air!

Recently, there has been approval to build a new streetcar loop in Auckland, which would introduce heritage trams along Auckland's waterfront. Phase two of the project would connect with the central business district and Queen Street. You can read an interesting discussion of the proposed tram route here and here.
If you're visiting Auckland, you may want to stop and check out the Museum of Transport and Technology.