Before the digital deluge of information, sometimes the only way to see or know an obscure place existed was to receive a postcard from a traveling friend, and glimpse a unexpected landscape in black and white, or washed out color. Below is a small mailbag of these visual dispatches from some of our favorite places, and how they once appeared to the wanders who came before us. 

SWEENEY OBSERVATORY SITE
San Francisco, California

article-image(Public Domain Image)

YE OLDE CURIOSITY SHOP
Seattle, Washington

article-image(via Wikimedia) 

CRESCENT HOTEL
Eureka Springs, Arkansas

article-image(via Wikimedia)

MUSEE AFRICAIN DE L’ILE D’AIX
Île d’Aix, France

article-image (via Wikimedia)

OLD MAN OF THE DALLES
St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin 

article-image(via mnmuseumofthems.org)

PERE LACHAISE CEMETERY
Paris, France

article-image(via Wikimedia)

CHEESMAN PARK
Denver, Colorado 

article-image(via usgwarchives.net)

BLUE WHALE
Catoosa, Oklahoma

article-image(via Robotkid/Flickr user)

Have a vintage postcard from a place in the Atlas Obscura that you’d like the share? Let us know!