Bringing the News

This is a colorful volume of century-old postcards that celebrate newsies in photographs and artwork.People have always craved the latest news, whether it was delivered from distant places by mail carriers or peddled on street corners by newspaper hawkers. This collection of newsies on postcards shuffles together The Daily Mail and the daily mail.These century-old postcards celebrate newsies in photographs and artwork, in groups or singly, black and white or color. The newsboys-and girls, as well as a few adults-are almost always portrayed in hard-knock ways. Their feet and calves are sometimes bare and patches cling to their elbows and knees. They cover their heads with stocking caps or the floppy hats we still know as newsboys. In romanticized cartoon images and photographs, smiles belie and deny the child labor and exploitation they endured.Though adult contractors have replaced newsies and email and the Internet are replacing postcards and newspapers, if there is inside you a scrappy, survive-by-your-wits newsie, you’ll enjoy this collection of cards and carriers bringing news in old-fashioned ways. All illustrate a time when street-corner entrepreneurship was treated as a sign of a resilient, we-can-make-it America.