This week on my regular ‘picture postals’ post, a short tour of the Brown University repository in which I point out few of the more remarkable ‘picture postals’ from Lovecraft. These and many more can be found, free online at the Repository.
First, one that’s not actually in the Lovecraft collection, but is in the Repository. It shows a view of the Wickle gates I’ve never seen before, a view which puts them in visual context with the Brown clock tower in the corner of the campus. The gates were just a stone’s throw from Lovecraft’s last home at 66 College St., and he could see the clock tower through the trees. I’d never realised that one would have such a ‘Roman’ feel here, due to the columned building in the background. Something Lovecraft would surely have appreciated.
An early one from 1923, showing that the “old man” head was not modelled (with a bit of help by human wedge and sledgehammer) on the older Lovecraft.
Three additions to my recent post on Lovecraft in Dunedin, Florida.
Another evocative card from Florida, which is said to have physically gone missing from the collection. Though the scan remains.
The Woolworth Tower, New York City. If I remember rightly this was the tallest of the towers when Lovecraft first visited the city. One of his first acts was to ascend to the top and survey the city. He later thought fondly of Mr. Woolworth, who became very rich by providing people with reliable items at affordable prices in his stores.
In New York Lovecraft would pick up cards from the many museums. Here we see the phases of prehistoric man reconstructed from skulls. I don’t want to spend an hour reading up on the history of early anthropology, so I’ll just say that I seem to recall that ‘Piltdown Man’ was later discredited. And that the implied direct evolution of man from Neanderthal is also discredited, though we probably picked up some Neanderthal genes. I could be wrong on that though, since the scientific understanding may have changed again. Suffice it to say that much has changed since Lovecraft’s time.
Also a card showing “King Senusert III as a Sphinx” from Ancient Egypt, which appears to have been enclosed with a letter, to an unknown correspondent who was about to visit NYC.
The interior of Julius’ bar, NYC. Lovecraft stayed in a room above this bar for several weeks in 1935. It was later a famous gay bar in the 1950s-70s, though its status in 1935 is unknown.
The Japanese gardens at Maymont. Lovecraft went into raptures about these, thinking them even better than the similar Japanese garden in Brooklyn.
A view up College Hill. At his last home Lovecraft lived just in front of the distant white building with the long white windows — the John Hay Library at Brown, where his papers are now a prize collection.
Here we see a similar view, not in the Brown collection. It’s possible that Lovecraft’s house can be glimpsed, in a little courtyard garden back of the street-facing houses.
The Akley house, one of the inspirations for “The Whisperer in Darkness”.
On the Mississippi. Lovecraft travelled as far west as the Mississippi, and even crossed over for a short time.
The old Spite House, at his beloved Marblehead.
The re-created Pioneer Village at Salem.
Many more can be found, often alongside writing by Lovecraft, at the Brown University repository. High-res versions can also be found (look for the .JP2 files).
“Here we see a similar view, not in the Brown collection, from the 1960s. It’s possible that Lovecraft’s house can be glimpsed, in a little courtyard garden back of the street-facing houses.”
The house was moved to its current site in Prospect Street in 1959.
Ok, well… 1960s was just an educated guess. Perhaps from the late 1950s then. There does seem to be something back there.
Yes, looking more closely at the car models to be seen, it may well be the later 1950s but a 1960s printing of the card (I was hazily estimating the date by the colour printing).