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SOUVENIR POSTCARD

Wishing We Were There...



POSTCARDS
MARK TWAIN MONUMENT FIVE POINTS, MARK TWAIN CAVE
POSTCARDS
MARK TWAIN MARK TWAIN MONUMENT MARK TWAIN AT HIS BOYHOOD HOME MARK TWAIN'S BOYHOOD HOME STATUE OF TOM AND HUCK AT CARDIFF HILL HOME OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN MARK TWAIN CAVE THE PARLOR, MARK TWAIN CAVE NEW HANNIBAL HIGH SCHOOL
POSTCARDS
RIVERVIEW PARK, WABASH BRIDGE AND TURTLE ISLAND MARK TWAIN MEMORIAL BRIDGE OVER MISSISSIPPPI MUSEUM AND BOYHOOD HOME OF MARK TWAIN JACKSON ISLAND AND LOVER'S LEAP SCENE IN RIVERVIEW PARK CITY PARK MARK TWAIN MEMORIAL BRIDGE EXCURSION STEAMER CAPITOL ON THE MISSISSIPPI HANNIBAL LA GRANGE COLLEGE
  The postcard above was one of several that went on sale in Hannibal not long after MT re-visited the town in 1902. You can see other early-20th-century souvenirs of MT's Hometown from Kevin MacDonnell's collection in the MARK TWAIN COLLECTIBLES section of the archive.

  The same photo is included in the set of images packaged together into the elaborate souvenir at left. This card set probably first went on sale in 1936, just after the MT Bridge was opened to traffic. It's re-presentation emphasizes the thriving modern city rather than the sleepy village: the past is perched on pedestals, while the present is defined by new schools and hospitals.

  The photograph on the card below was probably taken in the early 1950s, though it claims to re-present a past that by that time had been gone for almost a century. Since then that past is still further away, but the card remains on sale, and is typical of the image of "America's Hometown" that Hannibal has cultivated and marketed for the last half century. Where children in bare feet might once have stood for poverty or backwardness (note how well-dressed the Hannibal youth are in the cave photo left), they now carry visitors back to a time rich in nostalgic significance.

SOUVENIR POSTCARD
SOUVENIR POSTCARD

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