Historic Postcard Prints

These historic postcard canvas prints highlight the landscape and buildings of a vibrant desert city in the 1930s and ‘40s.  These decades in Tucson, Arizona ushered in a lively urban scene downtown, and saw the heyday of active guest ranches designed for eastern tourists looking to relax, rejuvenate and ride into the sprawling Sonoran desert.  Long time Tucsonans speak fondly of this era mentioning eager shopping trips to downtown department stores and movies at the famed Fox Theatre. 

The late 1920s through the ‘50s also heralded a new era for postcards.  Thanks to new American printing processes, publishers began to print on textured papers with cross-hatched surfaces, resembling linen.  These linen postcards helped to send images of such Tucson treasures as the Arizona Inn and Mission San Xavier del Bac all over the world.

The canvas prints you see here were all taken from historic linen postcards from the private collection of Terry Etherton, owner of Etherton Gallery.