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posts-cards.bsky.social
starch mogul
@posts-cards.bsky.social
720 followers 500 following 2.1K posts
prairie-style socialism and postcards

https://www.postcard-past.com/
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posts-cards.bsky.social
looks like mike quigley just bought a big list of emails or signed up anyone who’s ever sent an email yelling at him, because no fucking way would i have subscribed to this
Hi there — I'm Mike Quigley. Thanks for reading my new Substack and for being part of this community. It means a lot that you're here
December 3, 2025 at 3:02 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
grilled cheese bus stop
bus stop shelter with giant fake grilled cheese sandwich on top
December 2, 2025 at 11:09 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
waiting for the bus in the snow after snocaps feels like a perfect chicago december evening god damn
snow mush in the street, underpass, train viaduct, warehouse converted to apartments, its dark
December 2, 2025 at 4:54 AM
posts-cards.bsky.social
1910 -> 2025
church on a street corner of a Chicago neighborhood guy in optic yellow on a piece of construction equipment over the half-demolished sanctuary of a church roof beams exposed, steeple clipped, a flock of pigeons exiting the belfry
December 2, 2025 at 12:48 AM
posts-cards.bsky.social
the congregation’s second church on this site burned down in 1896
HAS GREAT SUCCESS. PASTOR WERFELMANN'& LIFE Opfer ires Berufs. Kirde perunglüdt. CHURCH IS BURNED. Christ German Lutheran Edifee De-atroyed. Christ German Lutheran Church, at Humboldt avenue and Byron street, was destroyed by fre shortly before 1 o'clock this morning. It was a frame structure, and it required only a few minutes for the blaze to envelop it and place It beyond the power of salvation on the part of the fire department. During the progress of the fire two men belonging to truck company 19 were Injured. They are: JONATHAN, CULIN, and hands burned about the face and leg broken by falling timbers. Taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital. ANDREW PREZANOWSKI, injured about the head by faling timbers. These men were caught almost in the midrt of a mass of burning woodwork, which composed a spire, and fell shortly after the arriva! of the department. tion almost The men found the situa- hopeless. but turned severa! streams of water upon the blaze and made • desperate attempt to hold'it in check. Cullen and Prezanowski stood nearest to the burning spire which fell, and had scaree ly time to recognize the warning cry that was raised when the danger was noticed before the timbers collapsed, and they were struck Ly a portion of them. Rapid work on the part of their comrades, however. soon relleved them from their perilous positions, and they were found not to be dangerously injured. The church edifice was 150 by_70 feet in dimensions. It had three spires, and was regardéd by residentà in the vicialty as a (handsome structure. where it stood 1s Adjoining the spot a parochial school build- ing owned by the church. the extent of $1,000. It was damaged to The burned edifice was valued at $20,000, and contained a great organ worth $1,700. The property is insared for about one-fourth its value. Edward Werfelmann. The pastor, Rev. said while watching the edifice burn that there was still a debt of $15,000 upon it. He declared, however, that the congregation would rebuild at once, and that he would call a meeting of his flock at the parochial school for tonig…
December 1, 2025 at 11:27 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
i don't know why i make these

1891 - 2020
December 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
woof
1911 postcard on the left, church on a corner, one spire larger than the other. Photo on the right, mid-demolition, taller spire clipped, roof half gone
December 1, 2025 at 3:45 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
not looking it up, but deciding that jean-luc picard's name was taken from these terrifying looking french balloon twins
photo of two men, maybe zombies, text says "prof. jean piccard (right) sends up an unmanned stratosphere balloon. he is shown with his twin brother, prof. auguste piccard"
November 30, 2025 at 5:21 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
good show

(you can call that number to hear the lia kohl piece)
fake poles at patient info, including pieces by Lia kohl and Madeline galluci fake pole on the chair in patient info’s examination room piece and fake pole slide of a bird inside a fake pole
November 29, 2025 at 8:26 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
postcard verso
November 29, 2025 at 5:31 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
CALUMET SKYWAY
color photo postcard of the skyway bridge over the calumet river
November 29, 2025 at 5:30 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
1896 st. louis tornado killed 255+ people
sketch in the chicago chronicle, may 30, 1896, "the st. louis tornado in the heart of the city"
November 28, 2025 at 11:47 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
they’re making quick work of that church on mclean and richmond
half demolished church, spires snipped, sanctuary half gone, front still kinda there
November 28, 2025 at 8:26 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
why do we think there was a single car freight train on the UPNW tracks in edison park
yellow Union Pacific locomotive, freight car, other car
November 28, 2025 at 6:44 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
a hundred years after his death in 1784, there were virtually zero monuments to serra in california—this was a project from the 1890s to the 1930s, a cousin to the confederate statues thrown up around the country in that era

three out of these four are now gone
by arthur putnam, in the san diego presidio, 1910ish in los angeles, 1932 san mateo county, 1975 monterey, 1891
November 28, 2025 at 5:19 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
the local angle is that tilden's statue was cast at the american bronze foundry co. in chicago
Color postcard on the left: a statue of a priest holding a cross with his arms raised, on the plinth it says Padre Junipero Sera, Founder of the California Missions, surrounded by greenery. Photo on the right: plinth in the shade, no statue, foliage is sparser, more palms, road and streetlight in the background.
November 28, 2025 at 5:14 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
i think about this brutalist baseball dugout at the old alameda naval air station like once a month
dugout made of concrete on a baseball diamond, cranes and a container ship in the background
November 27, 2025 at 6:44 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
Unused postcard verso
November 27, 2025 at 6:37 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
City of Towers
Color photo postcard, aerial view of the Loop, mid-1950s to late 1960s, dome of the old federal building, the Clark Adams Building, the Palmer House, etc.
November 27, 2025 at 6:36 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
genuine question, can someone help me read this?

it's from former san francisco mayor james phelan to irish academic douglas hyde
postcard from former San Francisco Mayor James Phelan to Douglas Hyde
November 27, 2025 at 3:35 AM
posts-cards.bsky.social
postcard verso
November 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
Chicago's Grant Park and Skyline
color photo postcard of two girls, wearing white and yellow dresses, with a man in the formal garden of grant park, green, with the michigan avenue cliff on the left and the prudential building kinda lonely in the background
November 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
i’d never been inside lane tech before
lane tech gym, boys high school basketball, DePaul prep vs. Philips
November 26, 2025 at 3:22 AM
posts-cards.bsky.social
seems like they use it more to educate kids about the hydrology of the bay area, but the bay model is way more interesting as a quirk in the history/practice of science and engineering—there’s like a 35 year period max where “huge building to model tides, salinity, turbidity, etc.” made sense
Golden Gate Bridge in the bay model, water in a concrete diorama thing tide hut on the bay model (little yellow building above the model and water) looking out across the model—huge hangar-like room with bow trusses
November 25, 2025 at 10:02 PM
posts-cards.bsky.social
back of the unused postcard
November 25, 2025 at 6:37 PM