Business postcards display commercial and industrial buildings.  These postcards might contain an individual photo of a business building or a street shot of a business district. Featuring the frequently used businesses of the time from which the photos were taken, these postcards enable one to determine the materials and services in demand of the era. They document the transformation from family owned businesses to company owned franchises and at the same time capturing the state of the economy.

As the industrial revolution plundered through New England, Beverly economy lay in the midst of a great transformation. The invention by a local man Jan Messinger, of a machine that could produce machinery to make shoes, prompted the construction of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation in 1903. The “Shoe”, as it was often referred to, brought great prosperity to Beverly. It’s significant impact on the town is evident in that it was documented in a postcard. The United Shoe brought thousands of jobs to Beverly as well as a strong reputation for its industrial capabilities. The “Shoe” helped to transform Beverly from a rural town into suburban town, with a large middle class population. This reflects the general change New England was witnessing in the early 1900’s.

As Beverly began morphing into a suburban town, the downtown business district began to come into its own.  Once a few general stores and farm stands, Cabot Street flourished into the busy business district of Beverly. With Beverly becoming a suburban, family orientated town, the standard of living increased and spending money did also. General stores became quite popular and doted the streets of the city.  With more pocket change people began to indulge in good not necessary. In this postcard, a sign advertising the soft drink ‘Moxie’, clearly shows the increase in being able to buy not only necessary materials for living, but indulging in unneeded goods.  Much later Beverly developed similar business districts with more modern day stores including convenient stores, drug stores, supermarkets and department stores.  As depicted in the North Beverly plaza postcard, the economy of Beverly flourished in time leaving its citizens the spending money and the options to buy “wants” not only “needs”.  Wherever money can be found there is also the need for a bank. The Beverly Savings bank was one of the several banks to service the people of Beverly. As depicted in the postcard the bank shown individually as a dominant building was held in high regards, as the value of money grew increasingly important in society.

With an access amount of money in the pockets, society began to develop means of spending it. Recreational buildings and act ivies were founded and long with this increase of standard of living came an increase in free time. Citizens began finding ways to organize and spend their free times together.  Recreational Buildings and Civic Associations were founded.

With the establishment of the United Shoe came company orientated recreation.  The United Shoe Machinery Association served not only as a source of employment but as a recreation provider.  They company established an athletic club (now the Beverly Golf and Tennis building) for its employees and often sponsored organized races and entertainment. As depicted in these postcards, large companies such as the shoe began to involve themselves in not only their employees working hours but also their free time. This allowed for company loyalty and socialization among the staff.

Non-profit buildings were being built once communities had the extra time and money to put into them.  These buildings reflect the moral values and concerns of the community. They also show the dominant cultures and religions of the society.

The Beverly Public Library provided recreation in through education.  With more time on their hands and the importance of education increasing the library became a public wealth of knowledge.  Reading rooms were of easy access to all citizens and provided them with a place and materials to learn.

The establishment of the Young Men Christians Association in Beverly shows that the city held a fairly high Christian population.  The turnout for President Taft’s groundbreaking of the YMCA building in 1910 shows that this establishment was a great success with high hopes among the people. Being a Christian association, the YMCA building symbolized the importance of religion among the citizens of Beverly.  The association was not limited to only Christians therefore displaying the acceptation of diversity in the city.

Recreational and non-profit building postcards depict how free time was spent and what society valued. These postcards display how people lived when they weren’t working. They also showed peoples personal beliefs and interests.

Sources:

http:// www.primaryresearch.org
http://www.noblenet.org/beverly/

Next category: Churches

When organizing postcards there may be different categories such as religious, historical, scenic, political, novelty, civic, and transportation.  If you were to place houses into a category it would fall under historical.  It would fall under historical because normally if you have a postcard of someone’s house, that house generally belongs to someone well-known. It could be an author, a political leader, an actress or actor, or just someone who has made a difference in the world.  When a person is remembered after he or she is gone their house is remembered too.   If you were to walk down the street and pass a house such as John Balch’s house you would stop and look at it just because he made a difference and it is a way of recognizing him.  [1]

 

Another reason for putting pictures of houses on postcards is to attract tourists.  A tourist might come to Beverly because they know that their favorite writer (such as Oliver Wendall Holmes) lives in Beverly and they would like to pay tribute to him by seeing his house and where he lived. [2] When visiting a person’s house you get a better feeling of what that person was like by seeing their belongings.  Famous people’s houses tend to be used as museums after they are gone.  After visiting this museum you might walk by a rack that has postcards with a picture of this house on it and you might buy it to show friends and family at home that you have been there.  In a way it’s proof that you have actually seen it. [3]

Pictures can be used as historical evidence.  They can also be useful when comparing two different time periods.  A postcard is just a picture that you can write on.  When a house is depicted on a postcard it can be used to represent a time period just by showing what style of house it is. Taft’s summer house, for example, is a colonial style house, yet it is made to look in the fashion of modern-day. [4]

Next category: Businesses

Many postcards fall under the category of landscapes. Postcards depicting landscapes may be separated into groups including street scenes, beaches and parks. Cities will often use streets that depict a busy urban-like scene. Quiet streets are also included to show nice suburban areas. Pictures of beaches and parks are used in postcards to show a city’s culture. Beaches and parks help a city’s economy, while adding to a city’s recreation, culture and beauty.

Postcards are very affective in illustrating Beverly’s many diverse landscapes. Cabot St. is one of Beverly’s busiest and most diverse streets.  Today Cabot St. has everything from small businesses and churches to cinemas and police stations. In this picture Ellis square is shown with its businesses and churches. Cars are shown, at this time cars are becoming a popular mode of transportation. This older postcard of Ellis square was taken in 1890. It illustrates a time when trolleys were used for transportation and roads were made of dirt. In postcards that depict quiet streets, people are often shown walking. A popular street for this type of postcard in Beverly is Dane St. Another street that was good for this type of postcard was Mingo Beach Hill, in Beverly Farms. This picture  was typical to many private-like streets with water views. One very popular beach and park was Dane St. Beach. Dane St. Beach is included in many of Beverly’s postcards because of its picturesque view. It also offered a great place to walk or ride a bike. Another one of Beverly’s most popular parks is Lynch Park. Many postcards depict its beautiful rose garden. The rose garden was, and is, known for its magnificent flowers and sculptures. This area is so nice that President Taft chose it as his vacation spot for several summers.

Next category: Houses