Before there was Instagram to share your photos and experiences, there were postcards. Did you know that by 1908, ~700 million postcards were mailed according to the US Postal Office? During the “golden age of postcards” Columbia was captured on film by companies like Sargeant Studios, Meeks Candy and Tobacco Company, and the Asheville Postcard Company.
Lucky for us, Richland Library has an expansive digital collection of local postcards, so we picked out a few to take you back in time and back to school.
Allen University
Published on linen paper in 1949 by the Asheville Printing Company, this postcard depicts the Esso Station at 1428 Harden St. located across the street from the Chappelle Administration Building. That building was named a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
Benedict College
Constructed in 1932, Antisdel Chapel was built under the leadership of Benedict’s first Black president, J. J. Starks. In 2023, the college was awarded $750,000 from a National Park Service grant to rehabilitate the property.
Columbia College
Did you know that Columbia College, formerly known as Columbia Female College, was originally located off what we know today as Hampton Street? The moonlit scene depicted here shows the college’s North Main campus under moonlight in the 1940s.
University of South Carolina
Printed in 1907 by the Souvenir Post Card Company, this image shows USC’s iconic Horseshoe. Flip it over and you’ll see a one cent stamp from the early 1900s that looks like a one dollar bill and a postmark from Rock Hill. The white house in the center (where the McKissick Museum is now located) was then home to the original president’s house.
