Tag Archives: artwork

Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, UT

This is an illustration of the world famous Tabernacle located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

Carpenter Paper Co., Salt Lake City, Utah


The description states:
This mammoth auditorium is 150 feet by 250 feet and 80 feet high. It is unique and severe in design and employs a self-supported, vaulted type of roof which accounts in part for the unusual acoustics of the building. A nation-wide radio program, featured the great Tabernacle organ and choir, originates in this auditorium.
–The radio program expanded into a TV show as well, and with the arrival of the internet, the choir is broadcast online as well. This card dates from the 1940s.

Mormon Temple Night Illumination, Salt Lake City, UT

Closing in some from the previous card, and descending to ground level, the artist has rendered the Temple building at night with the appearance of lights on the upper half of the towers.

Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah


The description on the back states:
THE ‘MORMON’ CHURCH, whose official designation is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was organized in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, April 6, 1830, with six members. The week of April 6, 1930 was celebrated as Centennial week wherever a unit of the Church was then located. The illumination of all ‘Mormon’ Temples was part of the ceremonies. The Church now has approximately 1,000,000 members.
–Obviously, now that nearly 75 years have passed, there are far more members of the LDS church. This card dates from the 1940s.

Temple Square at Night, Salt Lake City, UT

This card image is an artist’s rendition of a more common daytime scene, but with a dark cast and a few added lights to imply nighttime. On the right is the Mormon Temple, and center is the domed building of the Tabernacle.

Carpenter Paper Co., Salt Lake City, Utah


The description states:
The Temple Block is a ten acre square, encompassed by a solid stone and adobe wall, 12 feet high an d3 feet thick, with large gates on each of the four sides. Within the wall red the Great Mormon Temple, Tabernacle, Assembly Hall, Museum, the First House built in Utah and Bureau of Information.
–This card dates from the 1940s.

Swimming in Great Salt Lake, UT

This image is an example of the kind of swimming possible in a lake so saturated with salt that one can easily float like a cork without any effort at all. The threads and perforations indicate that once there was a small bag of salt attached to the card.
The Great Salt Lake has receded and refilled a few times since this image was made, and it is unlikely the buildings shown are still in use. The famous Saltair resort was the most active venue along the lake, and has seen many ups and downs.

Carpenter Paper Co., Salt Lake City, Utah


The description states:
Great Salt Lake, located 15 miles west of Salt Lake City, is the largest of its character in the world. The water is about 22% solids and one may float upon its surface without effort. Thousands of tons of salt, obtained by solar evaporation, arer produced annually by the industries on its shores.
–This card, like the others in the same series, dates from the 1940s.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

This folio collection of images and illustrations from Tulsa, Oklahoma have several examples of views that bear a striking resemblance to recent graphic representations in such computer games as the Sim City series. The images appear to be primarily artist’s renditions, with a few colored photos included.

All images by Oklahoma News Co., Tulsa, Okla.











While Tulsa continues to style itself the Oil Capital of the World, the many decades of changes in oil production world wide and even recently via tar sand development likely have made the claim moot.
This folio can be best dated by the illustrations which show automobiles consistent with the 1940s.

Chinatown, San Francisco, CA

This folio includes colorized photos and artworks depicting various people, events and locations in the Chinatown district of San Francisco, CA. In addition, there are a number of other notable sights included in the illustrations which are not associated with Chinatown.

All images by Colorpicture Publishers, Boston 15, Mass.


















The picture above numbered SF 38 – Chinatown Grant Avenue Looking North is an earlier version of the same view seen on this card from a previous posting. Here the building is the Cathay House, while the later card shows it to be the Wax Museum.
The city views from the Fairmont Hotel are now quite different. The Fairmont is surrounded by multi-story buildings, so any view of the bay or ocean would be unlikely now except from the highest floors.
The folio is not used and has no publication date, but the automobiles shown indicate it is from the 1940s.

Norway Embroidered Postcard

This card is unique in design from the others in this collection. The image of a woman has embroidery on the skirt, sleeves, and bodice.

Colorama


There is no true description on the back, just the words Gudbrandsdal and Norge. This indicates the clothing is representative of the style once worn in the town of Gudbrandsdal, Norway.
A search for this and other similar cards indicate this is from the 1960s.
 

Cretan Bull Leapers Fresco

This is an artwork from ancient Crete showing several stages in the process of vaulting over a bull. It appears to show a sequential image of gripping, leaping and catching, but there are serious problems with this interpretation.

The description is short, and states:
HERACLION (Museum) Tauromachy. Fresco of the Cnossos Palace.
The use of the term Tauromachy is probably inaccurate, as the general definition of this does not include the acrobatic activities as shown here. It is better described as taurokathapsia, or bull-leaping. The fresco was originally in the Palace at Cnossos, but was moved to Heraklion into the museum there for preservation and safety. Even so, the fresco is severely damaged, and much of the image is restoration rather than original material.
The card was used and is dated 10 June 1977.

Adoration of the Magi

This card shows the visit of the three Wise Men to the manger where the Christ was born.

The dark splotches in the image are gold foil, which does not scan well. When in normal light, the card can be adjusted to allow the gold foil to reflect. However, in this scan it looks like some odd staining.
The card was purchased in Egypt and mailed from there on November 25, 1977.

Nativity Scene

This postcard is a representation of the Holy Family in the manger after Jesus’ birth.

This card does not scan well, since the areas seen which appear black are in fact gold colored foil, which shines when light reflects off it. This is not apparent in a scanned version. The foil was added to make the image look more valuable, but the result is to make it appear overdone.
The card was printed in Italy, but sold in Egypt as a souvenir for tourists there. This one was used and is dated November 25, 1977.