Moments frozen in time

Via Facebook—I know the thing we love to hate and is stealing our elections—at the Uptown Historical Group, I discovered the wonderful little photo postcards of CR Childs. These have been featured at the site several times and this weekend decided to check them out.

Places to click were plentiful through Pinterest and eBay—aka examples of his work available to purchase. The subject matter seeming to be the Midwest circa 1900 – 1910. Outside of that I was having difficulty finding a bio. It seems as though Lake County and the Chicago Historical Societies have CR Childs’ postcards in their archives. Childs started his own printing company that produced these penny postcards. Regional photographer Charles R. Childs (1875 – 1960) was born in Elmwood, Illinois and worked for the Joliet Daily News before moving to Chicago to start his own commercial photography business about 1900. By 1906, Childs was specializing in real-photo postcard views of Chicago's neighborhoods and suburbs, including Lake County, Illinois. Childs set up shop as a commercial photographer after he moved to Chicago around 1900. He started making postcards and taking other printing jobs, as well, a few years later. Needing more space, he moved his business from the Loop to a three-story building at 5707-15 W. Lake St. in the Austin neighborhood. His business remained open on Lake Street into the 1950s. He lived nearby until his death of heart failure on Jan. 14, 1960. He never married.

The rise of the penny postcard

Following the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition introduced the American souvenir postcard, Childs was on trend, recognizing the collecting phenomenon of postcards. His postcards were an instant hit with his ability to capture small ubiquitous moments. Children playing in haystacks. Passengers waiting for the daily train. Lakeside photos.

After 1907, postal laws changed and allowed postcard messages to be written on the address side of the card, the industry spurted again. Before that, the message had to be tucked under the picture, making brevity the rule of the day. Several Chicago printers such as the Curt Teich Co., the Barnes-Crosby Co., the V.O. Hammon Postcard Co. and the United Card and Novelty Co., cashed in on the climate of postcard mania by printing and distributing millions of cards each day.

"People would send a postcard if they got as far as the Chain O' Lakes for a holiday," noted Ralph Teich, a son of Curt Teich who joined the family business in the 1940s.

About CR Childs’ perspective

The majority of his postcards capture romantic scenes such as a pastoral Naperville, row boats floating through lotus beds in Fox Lake or a dirt road heading into the shaded countryside from Evanston.

His legacy

The Chicago Historical Society bought the Childs archive of postcards and negatives from a now-deceased Chicago area collector and the estate of another deceased collector holds another voluminous archive. The Lake County Discovery Museum has over 600 Childs' postcards. It is estimated that Childs, along with the photographers he employed, produced 40,000 to 60,000 different photo postcard views of the Midwest. Focusing his lens on postcard images from the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Mr. Childs sent photographers out on the interurban trains from Chicago to various towns in the Midwest to capture views.

Today his early penny postcards sell for the premium price of from $15 to $30 at postcard shows and online.

Wilson Avenue Beach

A CR Childs' RPPC is now up for sale on eBay. It appears to be Buena and Kenmore Avenue in Buena Park. $14.99

Early 1900s RPPC showing Wilson Avenue east from Evanston Avenue, now known as Broadway. Available for purchase on eBay. $16

His genius seems to have been in capturing the mundane city-scapes that we now use to reference the past, to make it come alive, and center us where we are today.