This series digitizes a set of postcards collected by my grandfather Donald C. Minor from 1906-1910. Born in Greene County, Pennsylvania in 1902, Donald was the youngest son, youngest grandson and youngest cousin of the Francis Marion and Mary Jane Gwynn Minor clan.  His parents, Robert and May Stephenson Minor, sent cards from their travels; his older sister, Helen, sent cards while she was attending school in nearby Waynesburg; aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends sent photocards and holiday greetings from all over the United States with great regularity.  The resulting Postcard Collection is both a family puzzle and a cultural window to the world of Donald Minor during the first decade of the twentieth century.

Thanksgiving Series No. 7

The scan hardly does this beautiful card justice.  The pumpkin and its vine are both embossed and outlined in reflective gold, accentuating the impression that the vine is in front of the fence.  The Eastern Wild Turkey is also embossed, though less so than the pumpkin, and is accurately illustrating this species – its face flushed blue from excitement, the beak’s long fleshy snood and throat’s wattle a brilliant red.  Finally, flat with no embossing, a lane leads from the turkey to a distant farmhouse.  Such depth of field!

Thanksgiving Joys were sent from Waynesburg, Pennsylvania to eight year old Donald by his sister, Helen,  on 22 November 1910 :

This turkey looks as if it would make a pretty good Thanksgiving dinner.  Don’t you think.  How are you?  Bye! Bye!  Helen