History Captured in a Postcard

The Tyrrell Historical Library was originally the First Baptist Church, completed in 1903. Postcards are an indicator of the significance of a building. I have no idea how many times the image of the First Baptist Church has appeared on postcards, but I have 17 in my Beaumont postcard collection. There are several ways that you can try to pin down the year a postcard was published: the presence of cars/horses, fashion, the date the card was mailed. Another way is to look at the back of postcard and check to see if the back is undivided or divided. Until March 1, 1907, the back of the card was undivided and was reserved for the address only; any message had to be written on the front of the card. The four examples shown above are all undivided backs, therefore they were published before March 1, 1907.

Coupled with the fact the church was built in 1903, these cards were published between 1903 and 1907. The postal cancellations are October 22, 1906, January 9,

1907, June 12, 1907, and October 17, 1908. These are the oldest postcards in my collection for the First Baptist Church.