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A 5.5x3.5" vintage RPPC photo postcard from the estate of a vintage automobile postcard collector. This was part of a huge collection of antique postcards.
Photo Overview
A wonderful early automotive real photo postcard showing two well-dressed gentlemen posing in a REO touring car on a leafy dirt road, postmarked 1909 and mailed from Elizabethtown to Butler, Pennsylvania. The driver sits confidently at the right-hand steering wheel while his passenger, sporting a straw boater, occupies the tufted leather rear seat. The distinctive REO script logo is clearly visible on the radiator, and a Pennsylvania license plate is mounted at the front.
A period collector or family member has helpfully annotated the front identifying the automobile as a REO 4-door touring car. The brass-era details are all here: acetylene headlamps, right-hand drive steering, wooden spoke wheels, and the buttoned leather upholstery of a true horseless carriage era machine. This card comes from the estate of a dedicated vintage automobile postcard collector and represents a prime example of early motoring photography in rural Pennsylvania.
Historical Notes
The REO Motor Car Company was founded in Lansing, Michigan in 1904 by Ransom E. Olds after he left Oldsmobile, the company that bore his name, following a dispute with investors. Using his initials for the new venture, Olds quickly made REO one of the top four American automakers by 1907. The touring car pictured here represents REO\'s bread-and-butter model of the era, a sturdy machine that helped make motoring accessible beyond the wealthiest Americans. REO would go on to produce the famous REO Speed Wagon truck line starting in 1915, which decades later lent its name to the rock band. The company built automobiles until 1936 and trucks until 1975. For the men pictured here around 1909, owning a REO in rural Pennsylvania placed them among the motoring pioneers of their communities, at a time when paved roads were rare and every drive was an adventure - a fact echoed by the sender\'s message on the back about a car that \'went up in smoke.\'
Browse our complete RPPC Photo Postcard photograph collection.
Text Present
Handwritten in pencil on the front upper right: \'19 REO 4dr. TOURING\'
Postal cancellation on front: \'BUTLER PA. OCT 26 9-AM 1909\'
Printed on back: \'POST CARD - CORRESPONDENCE HERE - ADDRESS ONLY\'
Postmark on back: \'ELIZABETHTOWN OCT 25 2PM 1909\'
Handwritten message on back: \'10/25/09 - I rec\'d your card some time ago but didn\'t take time to ans. I made a few nice trips since I was out there and I made one that wasn\'t so nice to. I suppose you heard about the car that went up in smoke for me. That was a close shave. I wish you could came in this fall but hope you can come some other time. How are the girls. Bert\'
Print analysis
This is an original Type 1 real photo postcard, printed on photographic paper contemporaneous with the image. The 1909 postmarks on both sides, the period 1-cent Franklin stamp, the divided back postcard format (standard after 1907), and the continuous-tone photographic emulsion with no halftone dot pattern all confirm this is a genuine RPPC produced at the time the photograph was taken, circa 1908-1909.
Condition
All postcards we sell are in fair to excellent vintage condition. Please see photos for any tears, folds, smudges, or other age damage that may be present.
