Abstract Blank note cards and one greeting card from eight different publishers reproducing photographs of muscular black male physiques, some nude, by several American photographers. Nineteen of the cards feature tipped-on real-photo analog prints. With the exception of three cards, all include the envelope and are sealed in the original clear mylar sleeve; 11 have a sticker on the verso of the sleeve from Wild Card, a gay gift shop in San Francisco’s Castro District open from 1996 to 2018. Also,...

Scope and content

Letter envelopes mainly bearing temperance images and messages, such as "Intemperance is the bane of society" and "A school-house on every hill-top and no saloon in the valley." Three of the envelopes contain messages in support of "the Maine liquor law," and one calls for the prohibition of liquor. One envelope advocates for cheap inland and ocean postage. The envelopes are addressed by hand to residents of towns in central New York, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.