This photo of the Salem-Washington Township High School is from a series of views of Salem published by the Wayne Paper Box and Printing Corp. of Fort Wayne. While this card is unused, several of the others were mailed, and the earliest postmark is Jan. 4, 1938, which helps date the photographs to the fall or winter of 1937 at the latest. All the cards show bare trees and clean streets, which indicates they were shot in the wintertime. The Wayne Paper Box series I know of eight sequentially numbered cards in this series. The series appears to have been reprinted at a later date. In the early version the cards (including the high school card above) have a silver border and a back design that includes the words "Post Card" centered over a double rule, shown at left. The later versions are printed on a shinier, heavily coated, lighter-weight stock. They have a very pale gray border, and the back design is plainer (at right). The images are lighter and softer, as well. The cards in the collection are indicated by icons: Silver border Light gray border E-591 -- Salem-Washington Twp. High School E-592 -- Lyon Hall Gymnasium E-593 -- Weir Memorial Methodist Church E-594 -- First Baptist Church E-595 -- North Side of the Square E-596 -- National Guard Armory E-597 -- U.S. Post Office E-598 -- Beck's Mill The Wayne Paper Box and Printing Corp. evidently did several series of views of Indiana towns. I have cards from the Seymour set, and have seen others. The Wayne Paper Box views of Indiana are a specialty of John Becker, a postcard and postal history collector who's a Past President of the Indiana Postal History Society an a member of the Indiana Postcard Club. He generously shared the information on series identifications and dating the cards, which you can see here. His research dates the E series to which the Salem cards belong to 1937, which agrees with my postmark data. (11/2/00, revised 06/26/05 and 03/17/07) Index | The 1930s | Next card