Finding Whittier at the Vintage Paper Fair

I paid 33¢ for this old postcard at the Vintage Paper Fair in San Francisco this month. The birch bark trompe l’oeil is what caught my eye.  I had not even paid attention to the subject – the photo shows the birthplace of John Greenleaf Whittier in Haverhill, Massachusetts.  I knew very little about the 19^th Century poet and abolitionist. You can learn more here.  Although, Whittier has been a presence nearly all my life.  A large volume of poetry sat on the shelves in the house I grew up in and the book.  Eventually the book made its way to my home in San Francisco.  It is stuffed full of treasures (see below) and was part of the inspiration for my ongoing Hide Art in a Book Project.  Now it’s time for this postcard to be slipped into the book and placed back on the shelf for someone else to find.