Great Lakes Postcard Set
Great Lakes Postcard Set
Great Lakes Postcard Set

Field Notes

Great Lakes Postcard Set

Sale price$9.95
Quantity:
Pickup available at Hello Merch Usually ready in 24 hours

Great Lakes Postcard Set

Hello Merch

Pickup available, usually ready in 24 hours

850 W Lincoln St
Phoenix AZ 85007
United States

Additional Order Info

Returns/Exchanges

We offer an Exchange Only Return Policy. We do not accept cancelations or exchanges on the following: Products benefitting charitable organizations, face masks, items tagged final run/sale, free or promotional items, any items damaged during shipping or opening, make-up, perishable goods, items washed, worn or unsealed, including vinyl/CDs that have been opened. 

Pre-Orders

Pre-ordering an album does not mean you'll receive it before the rest of the world. In fact, depending on where you live and the ship date, you may not get the album until after its official release date. All pre-order products will display an expected "SHIPS ON OR AROUND" date in the product description, which is subject to change, due to unexpected delays, beyond our control. Additional items purchased on the same ticket as a pre-order will not ship until the time specified in the description of the pre-ordered item.

Final Run

Items with the "Final Run" tag are not eligible for exchanges.  

Vinyl & Posters

Vinyl records and posters are pristine when packed. Please be aware we DO NOT issue refunds or replacements for minor cosmetic damage, such as corner dings, bends, split inserts, and so on. We pack our vinyl and posters securely and carefully in custom crafted boxes and tubes, but in some cases this type of wear is simply unavoidable during transit.

US Orders

Domestic orders take 1-2 business days to process, plus transit time.

International Orders

We ship just about everywhere. International orders take 1-2 days to process, plus transit time. Please note international shipments can often be unreliable and most delays happen at customs offices. ALL international customers are subject to the laws, duties and taxes of their destination country. Hello Merch is not responsible for any items lost, stolen or damaged during domestic transit.

USPS Media Mail

This method is offered to US customers as an old school budget service for vinyl, but highly discouraged, as it poses a greater risk for delays and damage. Hello Merch is not responsible for any items lost, stolen or damaged during domestic transit.

 

Please visit our knowledge base, or terms of service for more information. 

WISH YOU WERE HERE

This set of five postcards, one each for Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, was created as a tribute to Curt Teich & Co., the firm that revolutionized the postcard industry in the 1930s with their dreamy, photographic, hand-retouched “Art-Colortone” linen cards. They’re all ready for a stamp (this one would look particularly good) and a few witty lines to bring a little old-school joy to the mailboxes of your friends and family.

RE-IMAGINING THE PAST

While researching the Great Lakes for our Summer 2022 Field Notes Quarterly Edition, we stumbled across some intriguing postcards of the region from the 1930s. We knew we were on to something special when we discovered that the company behind these enormously popular postcards, Curt Teich & Co, was located—like us—in Chicago. On top of that, the largest collection of these postcards is housed at the famed Newberry Library,  just a mile or so east of Field Notes HQ.

A few days later, Jeffrey L. Meikle’s “Postcard America: Curt Teich and the Imaging of a Nation” arrived via parcel post. Meikle tells the whole story of the era, including an in-depth examination of the technologies and production processes that created these much-loved and frequently-collected cards. As Meikle describes, the company’s “vision now functions both as a powerful artifact of the cultural history of a particular era and as a powerful stimulus to nostalgic re-imaginings of the past.” Consider our set a typology of the Great Lakes.

TRUST THE PROCESS

We set out to produce this set of five cards in a manner true to the way they were originally created. That began with a 1,300-mile road trip to shoot black-and-white film photographs of each of the lakes, like a Teich Co. traveling salesman. 

After developing the film with expired Kodak D-76 in a canister in the sink, things got a bit more modern. We scanned the negatives and, having examined the original Teich production files, felt no qualms whatsoever about retouching and coloring the photos beyond recognition. We used the same palette of colors Teich supplied their colorists. 

After a consultation on the golden borders that stumped Dr. Meikle himself, we printed the cards on Neenah’s “Avon Brilliant White” linen cover stock. We made every effort to match Teich’s style and process, using modern methods where necessary. 

    • Linen Finish
    • 3½" × 5½"
    • Five Cards