Complete Postcard Catalog
Note the “B4937” in the stamp area at top right.
(Please be patient waiting for this page to load, it is very image-heavy.)
Many of the same official photos were used over and over again as Expo ‘74 images and souvenirs, including images of the same scenes from similar angles. The best way to organize them and to differentiate some of the more ambiguous ones (such as the various aerial shots of the fairgrounds) is the serial number that appears in the stamp space on each postcard. Each starts with B and has four digits. I have listed them here in order of those numbers, with titles from the front of the card or descriptions of the card’s image if they do not have a title.
B4500 series
B4600 series
B4700 series
B4800 series
B4900 series
B5000 Series
Ethel’s Expo Notes
Ethel Esslinger, a retired school teacher and real estate agent of Spokane, sold this stationery set for Expo. I have not found much information about how she became involved in this enterprise, but the results are some of my favorite fair merchandise. The notepaper folds down in such a way that the trimmed edge forms the letter “W” in the “Welcome to Washington’s Expo ‘74” message. The Expo ‘74 colors are also used to depict a sprig of lilac, Spokane’s flower symbol. These stationery sets were evidently sold at the Crescent, the Bon Marche, Sears, and other locations.
Most intriguingly, the Expo seals that are included in packs of Ethel’s Expo Notes are not the Expo seals that appear in official Expo ‘74 souvenir packs. The seals in Ethel’s Expo Notes do not have the two different images of the Tule Mat Pavilion model that appeared in the souvenir packs. Instead, these images have been replaced with two identical images of the actual U.S. Pavilion. I do not know whether this means that the seal producers did a second printing with revised images, or whether Ethel noticed the presence of the Tule Mat Pavilion and made arrangements to replace these misleading images. I only know that we must never underestimate the power of an Ethel.
From Spokesman-Review, May 12, 1974, p. 62.
From July 14, 1974, Spokesman-Review, p. 26.
On the left, seals from the souvenir package. On the right, seals from Ethel’s Expo Notes.
On the left, seals from the souvenir package. On the right, seals from Ethel’s Expo Notes.
