Panorama Postcard image of Capitol Square and Surroundings, Richmond, VA, ca. 1907, published by The Albertype Co., Brooklyn, NY

 

Panorama Postcard image of Capitol Square and Surroundings, Richmond, Virginia, ca. 1907, published by The Albertype Co., Brooklyn, NY

There are only a few panorama postcard images of Richmond published before 1930. This rare view, taken from a building on the south side of the 1000 block of E. Main St. opposite what is now the U. S. Court of Appeals Building, originally the U.S. Customhouse. These types of postcards were also called fold-out postcards. 

This building seen on the right is the old Times Building at Main and Twelfth Street. The building was enlarged 1890-1891 from a design by Richmond architect Charles H. Read, Jr. (1846-1904). 

This postcard was published in what is commonly called the Undivided Back Era, 1901-1907, when the back of a postcard was strictly reserved for the address, so senders had to write messages on the front of the card. This changed in 1907 during the Divided Back period, 1907-1915, known at the Golden Age of Postcards, when the U.S. Postal Service allowed messages and addresses to share the back of a postcard. This let images take up the entire front side, sparking a massive craze for illustrated and photographic postcards.

This image is dated from about 1907 - its a view that shows the Virginia State Capitol after the 1904 addition of the two wings added to the east and west ends of the building and before the Divided Back era of postcard publishing. 

The Albertype Company is described below from the catalog record for the "Albertype Co. Collection of North Carolina Photographs," circa 1900-1930s at the library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

The Albertype Co., headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y., produced postcards and other printed materials from 1890 until 1952. The company utilized a specific photomechanical processes process that had been invented by Joseph Albert in Australia in the late 1860s. Albert's process was an improvement on the collotype photographic process. The company had teams of photographers who traveled across the United States taking and buying images depicting people, places, and activities in all parts of the country. The images were published as postcards and marketed to be sold in the locales depicted in the images.

Back of the panorama postcard of Capitol Square. 

-- Ray