RPPC Helen Campbell, Girl Evangelist, 1927

This is a Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) of Helen Campbell.   The inscription on front says "Yours in His service" the Evangelist Helen Campbell.  Someone has written a date on back, "October 27, 1927".   It has an AZO stampbox on back with 4 shaded in squares in each corner, which lends a little credence to the date written on back.  This was a formal portrait, there were probably many, many copies made, and some were made into postcards.

This is a girl who definitely had her 15 minutes of fame.  There is a site called www.girlevangelists.org, and Helen Campbell is listed there along with 100s of others.  Apparently child evangelism was a big thing in the 1920s.  There is a short article about her - she was born in 1915, started preaching at age 9, was associated with the Pentecostal movement, was active in the San Francisco & Oakland, CA areas at least, and apparently drew large crowds.  I also found a couple of news articles and advertisements about her.  When this picture was made she would have been 12 years old, and more or less at the height of her fame.

I have no idea what happened to her.  I had never heard of her before I came across this postcard, and I don't know what she did in later life.

You're only a child prodigy when you're a child.  At a certain age, you're not much different than anyone else who may be gifted in whatever area you're a prodigy in.  I have a feeling this is what happened to Helen Campbell - at some point she was no longer a child evangelist, she was just an evangelist.

I could find nothing about her personal life, other than she traveled with her grandmother.  It is even possible that she's still living, she'd be in her late 90s now.

Update: Sold!

An RPPC of St. Anthony's Catholic Church and Noviciate, Angola, Indiana

This is a Real Picture Postcard (RPPC) of St. Anthony's Catholic Church and Noviciate in Angola, Indiana. 

Postcards like this get me to thinking about what an RPPC really is.  Most postcards start off as photographs, after all, so why are some RPPCs and others aren't?   Its a good question and sometimes it almost falls into the "you know it when you see it" category.  That's very unsatisfactory though.  After all, there are lots of postcard views of things such as this that are not RPPCs.

I used to think that RPPCs were not massed produced, but then you get into the definition of mass produced.  Many RPPCs are picture of people that were just included in a set made by a studio, and these are definitely almost one of a kind.  Some are nothing more than snapshots that people took and had printed on postcard paper (I like those, btw), and they are obviously not massed produced.  Others, like this one, are not studio produced, but are quite professionally done, complete with the caption in white on the front (scratched on the negative, I think).  I don't know how many copies of this postcard were produced but it was most likely quite a few.

One thing that guides me in a case like this is the manufacturer's logo in the stamp box.  Certain of these logos are associated with RPPCs - one of the most common is AZO, but EKC and many others are also common.  You can use these logos to date the postcards (or a least get a date range).  So to me, if it has the look of an RPPC and it has a stamp box logo I know is associated with an RPPC - then it's an RPPC.

This one has an "EKC" stamp box on back, dating it to somewhere between 1930 & 1950.  It's a nice stark black and white photograph which documents a scene 60 to 80 years old.  I have no idea if it's still there.

I have this postcard listed on eBay - if you're interested in it click here.

RPPC of a Sports Team - Probably Basketball, circa 1920s

This is a Real Picture Postcard (RPPC) of what is probably a college sports team of some sort.  We're not 100% sure what kind of team it is, but we think it's basketball.  

There is no messages or other writing to indicate who these people were, so we're left to wonder.

There are several ways to date an RPPC, the most obvious one being if it has a postmark or if someone wrote a date on it.  This has neither.  Another way is by clothing, and the "coach" is wearing a suit with a white shirt that has a high rounded stiff looking collar, with a tie.  That seems to date it into the 1920s.  The stamp box is another indication - different companies used different paper and they tended to turn the stamp box into their logo.  You can get an idea of how old an RPPC is by that logo.  The stamp box on this one dates the card from 1918-1930 or so.  So 1920s is a pretty good guess.

So 85 to 90 years ago a group of now anonymous young men on what was probably a college sports team posed for a team picture, and through the randomness and vagaries of life, we ended up with it.  Stuff like this never ceases to amaze me.

The postcard is not in the best shape in the world, but it's still an interesting picture.

Update: Sold!

Byron Harmon Real Picture Postcard (RPPC) of Bow Lake, Alberta, Canada

This is an RPPC by Byron Harmon of Bow Lake, in Alberta, Canada.  I believe it is in Banff National Park, and I think it is early 20th century.  It is black & white, showing a teepee, the lake, mountains and clouds.  The actual card looks much nicer than what I could reproduce here.  I've seen color cards (probably linen) based on this view.

Byron Harmon was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1876 and died in 1942.  He spent much of his life photographing the Canadian Rockies around Banff.  I've had other RPPCs of his photos, and they all are very high quality.  Much, much better photography than you find on your average postcard.

This was a mass produced RPPC, and there is a caption in white identifying the location a Bow Lake - its hard to read on the actual card, and pretty impossible to read on the reproduction here.  I believe these captions were made by scratching them on the negative. 

Anyway I like this RPPC - the image has a rather stark Ansel Adams quality to it.

Update:  Sold!