Times of the Islands Summer 2016

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
The earliest known picture postcards of the Turks
& Caicos Islands were published in 1904 by John Walker
& Co. Ltd., London. These postcards, of which only five
are known, were professionally printed with titles on the
bottom front in red letters. The scenes on the five known
postcards include a view of Duke Street, two different
views of Front Street, men loading lighters at the beach
and men raking salt. The John Walker anchor logo in red
ink appeared on the backs of these postcards which were
undivided, as only the address was to be written there.
Who actually printed them for the John Walker Co. Ltd. is
unknown.
In 1905, an as-yet-unidentified photographer on
Grand Turk produced what are known as real photo postcards
(“RPPCs”) from at least four different photographs.
A real photo postcard is produced by printing directly
from a photographic negative onto heavy photographic
paper the size of a postcard that usually has a pre-printed
postcard back. This was an inexpensive way for a photographer—professional
or amateur—to produce postcards
without having to order hundreds at a time from a printing
company. In other words, real photo postcards could
be produced on an as-needed basis at home or in the
photographer’s darkroom.
The first documented real photo postcard printed on
commercially available photographic paper with a postcard
back was mailed in 1899. It was probably printed
on Kodak’s Velox paper. George Eastman’s Kodak Co.
bought the Velox process from the Nepera Chemical Co.
in 1899 and began producing photo paper with a postcard
back that same year. In 1903, Kodak released the Nr.
3A Folding Pocket camera designed to use film that produced
a negative the size of a postcard so that it could
be contact printed onto Velox postcard paper.
These five postcards of Grand Turk, produced in
1905, are the earliest real photo postcards of the Turks
Islands known to date. These were printed on photographic
paper manufactured by the Anthony and Scovill
Company (Ansco) that was specifically designed to produce
postcards. These photographic papers had Ansco’s
CYKO logo in the stamp box pre-printed on the back side.
Because the back of early postcards was to be used
just for the address, any message had to be written on
the front. This is why many early postcards had space
to the left or right of the image for a short note. The
U.S.A. didn’t permit messages on the back of postcards
These two picture postcards from Grand Turk circa 1904 depict (from
top): Heavy seas crashing against the seawall on Front Street. Men
loading lighters on the beach with the customs dock in the background.
Both were professionally printed with titles on the bottom.
until 1907—England began to allow them in 1902. All five
known 1905 RPPCs of Grand Turk scenes were mailed
and all had messages written on the front.
Two of these real photo postcards were mailed to the
same person in Arkansas from the same person on Grand
Turk. They are especially interesting because the sender
made a notation on both of them. He marked a window
on the image of the American consulate building and a
view from across the salt ponds of the back of the consulate,
or the building next to it, with an “X”. He states on
these postcards that the “X” indicates where he worked
and lived.
These two RPPCs were posted by Mr. Walter Stanley
Jones who was the U.S. Vice Consul between 1895 and
1909 and Deputy Consul between 1909 and 1914. This
attribution is based on a 1904 John Walker Co. Ltd.
Times of the Islands Summer 2016 55