The art of collecting postcards is called deltiology from the Greek word “deltion” meaning small writing tablet. The Detroit Photographic Company (DPC) printed this first set of Cheboygan cards in 1904. DPC photographers worked with business owners to design an appealing card. DPC held exclusive rights to the Swiss “Photochrom” process for converting black-and-white photographs into color. They were printed by photolithography. American landscape photographer, William Henry Jackson became the plant manager of the Detroit Photographic Company and was probably the photographer for this set of pictures.Some were printed on linen paper stock which was easy to saturate. For some reason, the makers did not often print the date on the card, perhaps so they could sell the same card for years to come without it feeling dated. Instead many companies stamped the cards with a code, a number given to each batch. Because I am new to breaking the code in this field, there may be errors. If you catch them, please let me know.




