This view of the courthouse is the same one used for the later Robertson Drugs courthouse card, although here it has been cropped to a vertical. The crop makes the square look deserted, empty except for three or four buggies hitched to the courthouse fence. The Robertson card shows much more activity. The First Curt Teich Series The Curt Teich Co. of Chicago was the giant of postcard printing in America (see About Postcards). It reached its peak in the "Linen" era of the 1930s and '40s, but the company had prospered along with the fad for postcards in the 1890s and early 1900s. This first series of Salem views from Curt Teich coincides with that early boom. The photographs are not the best, but the messages on the cards indicate they were being eagerly collected. A search of the Curt Teich Archives at the Lake County Discovery Museum reveals that there were three views of Salem landmarks printed about the same time: this image of the courthouse, numbered 5705, the Presbyterian Church, numbered 5706, and the elementary school, numbered 5707. It was another 30 years before Curt Teich published a second set of Salem views. The card is postmarked from Salem at 5 p.m. on Sept. 4, 1907, and addressed to Mr. Arthur Smith, Great Bend, Kansas. The message on the lower edge of the front of the card reads, "I am coming home Sat. so I won't answer your last letter till I get there. W[?]. A. D." (08/23/04, updated 07/07/08) Home | The 1900s | Next card