Spotlight
Greetings From Des Plaines
I confess I'm more inclined to post vacation photos to my Instagram or Facebook accounts than send a postcard via snail mail.
But before we had the internet, postcards were the coolest way to share your vacation adventures with friends and family.
I still think postcards are cool. They're great souveniers and considered highly collectable. That's why we put together a new postcard collection called Greetings From... on Des Plaines Memory. Greetings From... has all kinds of postcards, but my favorites are the ones sent from right here in Des Plaines.
Here are a few:
The Des Plaines River has been a refuge from the summer heat and a source of outdoor recreation for generations. This postcard dated 1900 captures several people fishing and lounging around the riverbank. We have more postcards of the river, too.
If you live in Des Plaines you are probably familiar with the Methodist Camp Ground along the banks of the Des Plaines River. It has long been a popular vacation spot - especially for a game of croquet as seen here - even before the addition of the swimming pool, and we have more postcards of the Camp Ground from the 1900s to the 1950s.
This postcard of the Rand Park Pool shows the Des Plaines Park District pool has been a fun summertime destination since it first opened in 1940.
The Greetings From... collection has many more postcards to enjoy (remember the Fishermen's Dude Ranch?) and it's growing all the time.
If you have favorite postcards to share, upload them to Des Plaines Memory yourself and share them with the world!