A Collection of 50 Lovely and Fun Easter Cards From the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Happy Easter!

Here is a gallery of 50 colorful Easter postcards from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The earliest known depiction of the Easter bunny in the United States was acquired by the Winterthur Museum in 2011. The drawing from 1800 is by schoolmaster Johann Conrad Gilbert, who immigrated to Pennsylvania from Germany.

In fact, the Pennsylvania Germans brought many Easter traditions to America, which had their origins in the Pagan holiday celebrating the beginning of spring, known as Eostre. The hare, which is one of the most prolific animals in nature, was considered a symbol of fertility, and children would prepare baskets of colorful eggs for the hare to sit on.

Christians adopted these traditions for Easter, in which believers celebrate the resurrection of the messiah Jesus Christ. But the themes of birth, rebirth, and renewal remain constant. The grass is green, flowers are blooming, baby animals are being born. It’s a time of year when everything seems dewy and new. That’s why vintage postcards for Easter, especially those from the Victorian era, are so charming, with their depictions of fuzzy bunnies, newly hatched chicks, children and young women dressed in their Sunday best, and beautiful pastel flowers.

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Torches of Freedom: Photographs of Women Smoking Publicly During the Easter Sunday Parade in 1929

Cigarette companies began selectively advertising to women in the late 1920s. In 1928 George Washington Hill, the president of the American Tobacco Company, realized the potential market that could be found in women and said, “It will be like opening a gold mine right in our front yard.” Yet some women who were already smoking were seen as smoking incorrectly. In 1919 a hotel manager said that women “don’t really know what to do with the smoke. Neither do they know how to hold their cigarettes properly. Actually they make a mess of the whole performance.” Tobacco companies had to make sure that women would not be ridiculed for using cigarettes in public and Philip Morris even sponsored a lecture series that taught women the art of smoking.

On March 31, 1929, at the amidst of the Easter Sunday Parade in New York City, a young woman, Bertha Hunt, stepped out into the crowded Fifth Avenue and lights up a Lucky Strike cigarette. This act, however, is not advertising for Lucky Strike or for any other cigarette brand for that matter. It is a public relations campaign, aimed at encouraging women to have equal opportunities – including the right to smoke and not be classified as a “fallen woman” – the name given to prostitutes and “characterless” women.

Miss Hunt issued the following communiqué from the smoke-clouded battlefield: “I hope that we have started something and that these torches of freedom, with no particular brand favored, will smash the discriminatory taboo on cigarettes for women and that our sex will go on breaking down all discriminations.”

The incident was highlighted even more because the press had been informed in advance of Hunt’s course of actions, and had been provided with appropriate leaflets and pamphlets. Eddie Bernays – the father of public relations – whose secretary just so happened to be, Bertha Hunt, cleverly arranged this public relations campaign. Apart from the issue of smoking being taboo amongst women, there was also the issue that, “…women didn’t care for the green packaging of lucky strikes, and the manufacturer concluded that changing the color was too expensive.” Bernays was able to address this problem by incorporating the similar shade of green into the latest women’s fashion. This, in turn, made women subconsciously like the green and associated the packaging of the cigarettes with that of their clothing.

While walking down the street Hunt told the New York Times that she first got the idea for this course of action when a man on the street asked her to extinguish her cigarette as it embarrassed him. “I talked it over with my friends, and we decided it was high time something was done about the situation.” The New York Times dated April 1, 1929 ran a story titled, “Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of Freedom”. As women all over the country took to this new found symbol of their emancipation aggressively, Bernays must have had the last laugh at the ironic date of the story.

Mrs. Taylor-Scott Hardin parades down New York’s Fifth Avenue with her husband while smoking “Torches of Freedom,” a gesture of protest for absolute equality with men, 1929.

Edith Lee smokes a cigarette on the “Torches for Freedom” march, New York, 1929.

Ten young women followed Bertha Hunt that day down Fifth Avenue, brandishing their torches of freedom. The audience’s imagination was captured as newspapers enthusiastically reported on this new scandalous trend. Bernays used “sexual liberation as a form of control.” The days that followed saw Bernays not only emphasizing the liberation movement for women as far as cigarettes were concerned, but also waxing eloquence on its slimming properties and glamour quotient that ensured women getting hooked to Lucky Strikes. Sales doubled from 1923 to 1929. Bernay’s justified his $25,000 paycheck to Hill and their fruitful association continued for another 8 years that saw a miraculous jump in the sales of cigarettes. While voting rights were yet to be granted to women, Eddie Bernays got them an equally symbolic though hollow torch of freedom in a spectacular fashion.

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Pictures of New York’s Easter Parade From the 19th Century

New York City has hosted an Easter parade on Fifth Avenue since the 19th century. Taking place on Easter Sunday, for decades it was one of the most significant cultural events of the year. The parade, known for its display of beautiful bonnets and fancy hats. You can see how packed the streets near St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

One of the first places crowds gathered to display their Easter finery in New York City was not Fifth Avenue, but Central Park. The New York Times of April 21, 1873 reported:

“In the afternoon the crowds began to arrive. By every line of cars they swarmed into the Park. And, strange to say, there was a full fair sprinkling of the comparatively aristocratic classes, besides those who habitually make the Park their paradise on fine Sundays. Many couples were promenading who had certainly come from St. Thomas’ and other Fifth avenue churches, for their prayer-books were still in their hands. It seemed to be a universal exodus. Their were ladies in the most delicate Spring attire, poor sewing and shop girls in their Easter finery, ragged little children playing tag, to the great scandal of the straight-laced. And their were gentlemen in fine Spring overcoats and in heavy Winter overcoats, in Spring suits and Winter suits. Their were ladies in heavy silks and warm furs, and beside them others in the latest varieties of cameo fabrics.  It was evident that if some had come to parade their finery, the great majority had been perfectly surprised by such kindness on the part of Spring, but had determined, like sensible folk, to enjoy the fresh air and the glorious day in their old clothes   It would be impossible to calculate the crowds that swarmed over the Park like emigrating bees.”

By 1879 the Easter Parade was officially taking place on Fifth Avenue according to The New York Times. The newspaper on April 14, 1879 commented  “that Fifth Avenue was crowded with promenaders” and “Spring bonnets were worn by every lady promenader.”

The tradition of the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue continues in the 21st century and is no longer an aristocratic event, but one open to anyone wishing to show off their sense of style (or lack of it). Here are some images of the parade from the late 19th century:

1890

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(via Stuff Nobody Cares About)

17 Vintage Photographs Show Women Wearing Crazy Easter Bonnets in the Mid-20th Century

There is something freeing about wearing a chicken or a bunny or carton of eggs on your head! Even if you don’t celebrate Easter as a religious holiday, Spring is something we all celebrate, and what better way to help usher it in, than with a new hat!

Women, throughout the years, have bought new hats to wear to church services on Easter and to wear in local parades. They have been elegant, dramatic, whimsical, functional, and down right ridiculous. But Easter bonnets are a fun part of our fashion history!

Below is a collection of 17 crazy vintage Easter bonnets from between the 1940s and 1960s.

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16 Wacky and Funny Vintage Easter Photos From Around the World

It’s that time of year again, the season when we take all of our tiniest, most vulnerable humans and give them the same scarring our parents inflicted upon us so many years ago. It’s the psychic hazing that we’re, as a society, all pretty comfortable with. We speak, naturally, of a visit with the dreaded Easter Bunny.

Intrepid vernacular photography collector Robert E. Jackson curated a delightful selection of creepy, fun, and funny vintage photos of the Easter Bunny.

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21 Vintage Photos of the Hottest Easter Pin-Up Models From Between the 1940s and 1970s

Whenever you see a girl wearing bunny ears, whether you realize it or not, your eyes immediately lock to that item above her head.

In the middle of the 20th century, you'd see many pin-up models, around Easter time, would play into the season and don bunny ears.

These vintage pin-up models would adorn the walls of many men of the post-World War II era, which includes the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. At this time, the power of the pin-up is everlasting, and whenever the Easter Bunny would be ready to share eggs with the children of the world, these vintage models sexualize the holiday by donning bunny ears.

1. Dorothy Hart

2. Jeanette MacDonald

3. Irish McCalla

4. Debbie Reynolds

5. Cleo Moore

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20 Candid Snapshots of Terrifying Easter Bunnies From the 1980s

Remember those annual photos with the Easter bunny? It’s kind of hard not to be awkward when you're posing with a super awkward and creepy Easter bunny. While it might have been an unpleasant experience for you but for these poor kids it was a nightmare.

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18 Creative and Beautiful Vintage Women’s Easter Bonnets During the 1940s and 1950s

Traditionally Easter was a time that people bought a new hat, it was the end of lent and signified the start of a new season, it also meant that you attended church for three days in a row. It soon became a feature of Easter with people adorning their new items to wear to church and inter village excitement would build over who was wearing the latest fashions.

A hat with eyelet embroidery casts floral shadows on the face, 1940. (Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

A woman models a Sally Victor Hat, 1940. (George Karger—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

A woman models a new spring hat, 1941. (Herbert Gehr—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

A lady wears an extravagant hat with flowers and a veil. 1945. (George Karger—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

Checkered fashion at the horse races, 1945. (Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

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20 Vintage Photographs Show How Classic Hollywood Stars Celebrate Easter

We know celebrities always do things better, and Easter is no exception...

Angie Dickinson celebrates Easter in Hollywood

Debbie Reynolds

Shirley Temple with a bunny given her as an Easter present by Joel McCrea, 1936

Barbara Bates, 1945

Debra Paget, ca. 1950s

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A Collection of 30 Cute Bunny Rabbit Vintage Easter Postcards

The tradition to send Easter postcards to relatives and friends developed in the end of the 19th century. During the year 1898 were only a few cards sent but the amount of sent cards raised in the following years worldwide. Soon it was courteous to send Easter postcards.

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