Tall-Tale and Exaggeration Postcards

A real photo postcard. "Bringing in the sheaves. A common scene on a Kans. farm. Copyrighted photograph, 1908, W. H. Martin."

"The Land of Big Corn. Copyright 1909 by Martin Post Card Co."

This 1908 real photo tall-tale postcard by William H. Martin shows presidential candidate William Howard Taft (later president, 1909-1913) at a campaign whistle stop. Martin evidently intended the oversized vegetables that surround the railroad car and crowd to represent the prosperity that would result if voters elected Taft president.

A harvest photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Kansas photographer and postcard publisher William H. Martin (1865-1940) used pre-digital photomontage techniques to create amusing real photo postcards like this one that purported to show farmers with giant fruits, vegetable, and grains. Other Martin postcards with harvest scenes include Bringing in the Sheaves , Harvesting Wheat in Missouri , and Pumpkins Grown in Kansas Soil Are Profitable (see below). Corn and other crops also appear in other Martin cards, such as The Land of Big Corn , Good Corn Makes Good Hogs , Our County Fair Contest on Nebraska Corn , and Prosperity (see below),

A fish on a vintage real photo postcard for the ABC Group (4/17/2017). This is one of the amusing pre-digital photomontages composed by William H. Martin (1865-1940) in the early twentieth century. For more info and additional examples of Martin's work, see my brief discussion about Havesting a Profitable Crop of Onions in Iowa .

Photomontage in a tall-tale or exaggeration photo for the theme of photographic tricks and amusements during the free-for-all week of Wild Card Month in the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A real photo postcard created by William H. Martin in 1909.

A 1909 real photo tall-tale postcard by William H. Martin. For a similar postcard with an automobile and oversized apples, see Apples–How We Do Things at Fearnot, Pa. :

"How We Do Things at Fearnot , Pa. Apples." Postmarked Valley View, Pa., Oct. 11, 1912, and addressed to Clarence Wolfgang, Valley View, Pa. Handwritten message: "Dear Friend, I wish you good luck for every day. I came home safe. Hoping to hear from you soon. Minnie." A tall-tale postcard by Wisconsin photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr. For a similar postcard with an automobile and oversized eggs and potatoes, see The Modern Farmer :

An apple --and an "apple-butter" (get it?)--on a vintage postcard for the ABC Group (4/12/2017).

"How we do things at Jackson, Pa." These same onions appear in another tall-tale postcard entitled Onion Harvest (below), which was also published by Wisconsin photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr.

"How we do things at Ephrata, Pa." Wisconsin photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr., reused these same onions in another tall-tale postcard that he entitled Onions (below).

A real photo tall-tale postcard.