By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
May 22, 2013
William H. “Dad” Martin of Ottawa, Kan., is considered to be the father of the exaggerated postcard. Some of his better work featured huge ears of corn, giant apples and peaches, stalks of wheat taller than any man and massive pumpkins uprooting a farmstead. Such cards were hugely successful throughout the Great Plains states where agriculture was the life’s blood of rural America.
W.H. Martin moved to Ottawa in 1899 to serve as an apprentice under photographer E.H. Corwin. Eight years later, Martin purchased Corwin’s studio and began crafting the tall tale postcards that would eventually make him a millionaire.
This week, we feature one of Martin’s exaggerated, real photo postcards entitled: “A fight with a mad Pickrel” produced by Martin’s studio in 1911. The exaggerated image is achieved by the photographer taking two black
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
May 15, 2013
The great Kansas City real estate developer J.C. Nichols is not known to blunder often, especially in matters of real estate. His two man-made lakes in the Country Club District lends
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
May 1, 2013
Wednesday, May 7, a regular day: The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-4, the Chicago Cubs beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, Tommy Burns beat Jack O’Brien in 20 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title,
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
May 1, 2013
This 1942 Max Bernstein linen postcard depicts the Aircraft Assembly Plant, Fairfax Industrial District, Kansas City, Kan.
Sent on Feb. 11, 1942, to Mr. Jack Reddan, 3369 Grand Ave., Omaha, Neb., the message reads, “Dear
