Reflections on a Fairlee Postcard

Peeking into 1907 through an artist's eye

Mar 07, 2026

Jigsaw for March 8, 2026: 1907 Postcard of Fairlee

Too many pieces? Too few? How to customize your puzzle

A kind soul loaned her postcard collection to the Norwich Historical Society for use in our weekly jigsaw puzzles.

It was a beautiful set of cards, but this one of Fairlee from 1907 grabbed my attention. I had never seen it before, but had climbed those same cliffs.

As I looked more closely, something didn’t look quite real.

As I learned more, I discovered that postcard companies often started with a photograph, then redrew and enhanced it so the fields, river, and buildings looked idealized, almost like a miniature landscape painting.

Many were actually lithographs, made in Germany, using as many as 20 separate color plates.

I now look at local landscapes through the lens of mile-high glaciers and Lake Hitchcock. Can you imagine a glacial lake bottom forming those beautiful flat fields?

How close was the artist’s rendition?
Here are two photographs taken more than a century apart.

1910: