Vintage Route 66 Postcards
A collection of vintage Route 66 postcards from Arizona, each carrying handwritten messages from travelers of another era.
By The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona
From the collection of Mike Ward
Welcome to Arizona
The “Welcome to Arizona” billboards were easy to find all along Route 66 as well as other highways entering the state. This particular sign was located on east Route 66 in Arizona.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Winslow
This card is an old Albertype, a company that produced quality postcards for many years. It is likely that this card is around 100 years old. Although the card has a message on the back, it was never mailed so there is no postmark.
National Old Trails Highway
This vintage postcard, postmarked in 1931, showcases the National Old Trails Road both before the creation of Route 66 in 1926. Additionally, this postcard shows some of the mining operations along the route.
Street scene in Kingman
This Kingman postcard can be dated to sometime between 1926 to 1930, when the card was postmarked. While not advertising a specific business, this card was produced for Kingman Drugs.
This vintage postcard from the Peach Springs Trading Post, postmarked 1935, was very popular with tourists. Note the difference in the spelling between the sign on the building and the caption at the bottom of the card. Also, take note of the swastika on the right side of the sign. The swastika was a commonly seen indigenous symbol prior to World War II.
The Aztec Motel in Seligman
This property was originally built in 1915 and has seen many changes over the last century. From guest house to Mexican restaurant to beauty salon, the Aztec Motel was refurbished in 2021 and is open to guests once again.
Arizona State College
This card was postmarked in 1951 and features Arizona State College, which became Northern Arizona University in 1966, in Flagstaff.
Automat Cafeteria in Holbrook
The Automat Cafeteria in Holbrook sat on the corner of Navajo and Hopi. Automats were very famous eating places in New York City and Philadelphia, as well as other places around the world. It is interesting this facility in Holbrook used that term!
Williams
This vintage postcard, dating from 1908, shows the town of Williams in a much different time. There are likely many more horse trails in this photo than places where cars could be found.
Meteor Crater
This Meteor Crater postcard is a rather generic postcard that thousands were created for tourists. As it has been around as a tourist attraction for more than a century, it’s hard to date cards from this place as there are very few differences between most of the cards produced.
Oatman
This postcard featuring Oatman is quite a bit older than the 1947 postmark indicates.
Postcards from the collection of Mike Ward
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.