POTSDAM -- A new exhibition, "Merry Christmas! A Selection of Postcards from the Potsdam Public Museum Archives" will open at the Potsdam Public Museum on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. Live music, poetry, and refreshments will be available.

The Christmas greeting postcards on display represent a wide cross section of the major artists and companies that produced postcards during what was known as the "Postcard Craze" era that lasted from 1905 to 1915. This was a period in the United States during which millions of "penny postcards" were produced and sent at all holiday occasions. The outbreak of World War I largely brought to a halt to the buying and sending of greeting postcards as many of the outstanding printers of postcards were German, the museum said.

Many of the postcards in this display were sent to members of the Snell Family of Potsdam. The back and front of the postcard shown is part of the outstanding "A Merry Christmas" set printed by the Gold Medal Art Company, circa 1912, and published by the Midland Publishing Company of New York City. Gold Medal's distinctive "owl" logo appears on the back in the lower left corner. This postcard was given to Sara Louise Snell from her Sunday school class: James R. Ingram, Clyde Wakefield, Gordon Planty, Svea Norgren, Merton C. Carr, Margaret Anderson, and George Davis.

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