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A 5.5x3.5" vintage RPPC photo postcard from the estate of a vintage postcard collector. This was part of a huge collection of antique postcards.
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Photo Overview
A charming early 20th-century real photo postcard showing streetcar No. 34 of the Wilmington City Railway Co. in Wilmington, Delaware. Two uniformed crew members - a motorman and a conductor - pose proudly at either end of the open-platform electric trolley car. A rooftop advertising banner reads 'Buy & Wear Mullin's Clothing, 4th & Market,' giving this image a wonderful layer of local commercial history. The trolley's destination board reads 'Burgoyne St.' A second streetcar is partially visible to the right, suggesting this may have been taken at or near a carbarn or layover point.
The crisp photographic detail captures the trolley's overhead trolley pole, its ornate lettering, and the proud posture of its crew - making this a wonderful piece of Wilmington, Delaware transit and social history.
Historical Notes
The Wilmington City Railway Co. was one of several competing and later consolidated street railway operators serving Wilmington, Delaware in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the early 1900s, Wilmington's street railway network had grown significantly following the electrification of horse-drawn lines. Mullin's Clothing at 4th & Market was a well-known Wilmington retail establishment of the era, and the trolley car advertisement helps anchor this image to the city's commercial downtown district.
The street railway systems of Wilmington were eventually absorbed into larger regional transit consolidations and, like most American streetcar lines, were abandoned in the mid-20th century in favor of buses. The last Wilmington streetcar ran in 1935, making this card a document of a vanished form of urban transportation in Delaware's largest city.
Browse our complete RPPC Photo Postcard photograph collection.
Text Present
Front of postcard:
- On trolley roof advertising panel: 'BUY & WEAR MULLIN'S CLOTHING. 4TH & MARKET'
- On trolley car side: 'WILMINGTON CITY RAILWAY CO.'
- On trolley destination board: 'BURGOYNE ST.' (partially legible)
- Car number: '34'
Back of postcard:
- 'PHOTO POST CARD'
- Kodak paper stamp box reading: '-- Kodak -- PLACE STAMP HERE -- Paper --'
- 'ADDRESS'
- Handwritten number in upper right: '75'
- Handwritten inventory number along left edge: '6943'
Print analysis
This is a Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) printed on Kodak Photo Post Card paper, as confirmed by the Kodak stamp on the reverse. The Kodak 'Photo Post Card Paper' back style with this particular font and layout was produced from approximately the 1930s onward, suggesting this RPPC was likely printed from an original glass plate or film negative of the early 1900s trolley era, probably in the 1930s-1940s. This makes it a Type 2 print - produced from original negatives but printed decades after the photograph was taken. The print is estimated c1930s-1940s.
Condition
All postcards we sell are in fair to excellent vintage condition. Please see photos for any tears, folds, smudges, or other age damage that may be present.
