Wish You Were Here:  Postcards of Laurel

February 6 - December 21, 2005

Using postcards from the turn of the 20th Century to today, visitors saw how a community changed and grew through the postcards of businesses, churches, schools, hospitals and other institutions from Laurel and nearby areas along Rt. 1 in Howard County and Ft. Meade Road in Anne Arundel County.

A section called “Laurel Remembered” featured buildings, and views that had disappeared or significantly changed over the years, including Rt. 1 vistas and businesses such as the Cloverleaf Inn and the Laurel Sanitarium, the Laurel Mill and the Academy of Music.

Another section of the exhibition on Main Street offered visitors a chance to experience buildings that they can still see today from the Laurel Museum itself down to the B&O Railroad Station. A section on publicity postcards reminded us that “Direct Mail” is not new, and showed how as early as 1924 (Red Wing Theatre Program) companies and businesses, and even physicians used postcards tell the public about who they were, and what they did, and announces their schedules and services. There was also a special section on the Laurel Race Track.

Visitors to Wish You Were Here learned not only about Laurel history, but also the history of postcards, which were first developed around 1893-98, including how they evolved and have been used in the last century. Laurel had a very early postcard specialist, photographer Bert Sadler, and his circa 1907 wooden and brass plates of postcards, and his original cameras werel on display. The exhibit was curated by Laurel Museum Director Elsie Klumpner.

Other LHS exhibits:

Stories from the Attic:  Ten Years of Collecting - Feb. 2006-2007
Over Here: Life in Laurel During WWII
George Nye & His Diaries
Laurel School Room and Samplers
A Laurel Founder's Life ~ Horace Capron