Motels and roadside stops multiplied, and souvenir stands were stocked with brightly colored linen postcards ready to be mailed home or tucked into scrapbooks. These cards captured the spirit of California tourism in full color: beaches, bridges, deserts and palm-lined boulevards, all frozen in a cheerful, idealized moment.
The postcards featured here reflect the places tourists flocked to between the Depression era and the postwar travel boom: the new Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, the dramatic cliffs of Yosemite, the crowded beaches of Santa Cruz and Long Beach, and the rising skyline of Los Angeles. Each one hints at how travel culture was changing. The state was marketed as a modern paradise where nature and progress coexisted, whether you were headed for Hollywood, a national park or a coastal highway.
Below, these original vintage California postcards from the ’30s and ’40s give us a glimpse of how the state presented itself to the world during that time — sunlit, glamorous, and full of promise.
Greetings from California visitor postcard
Retro ’40s California postcard: Greetings from San Francisco
Main scene of Fisherman’s Wharf
“When the Golden Gate is golden”, San Francisco, California
San Francisco from the Pacific
Also showing the Golden Gate, G.G. Bridge, Business District, and San Francisco-Oakland.
Vintage 1940s postcard: Greetings from Oakland, California
Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the skyline of San Francisco, California
Air view, overlooking the city of Oakland, California
Yosemite Falls and the Merced River
Located in Yosemite National Park, California.
Joshua Palms on the desert in southern California
Crowds on the beach, Santa Cruz, California
Old-fashioned linen postcard from Los Angeles, California
Planetarium, Griffith Park
Near Hollywood, California.
Wilshire Boulevard, looking through Westlake Park
Located in Los Angeles, California.
Beach front, from the Rainbow Pier
Located in Long Beach, California.
Bathing in the surf at Long Beach, California
The famous Hotel Del Coronado
Located in Coronado, California.
Night scene, Hollywood Bowl
Located in Hollywood, California
Vintage 1940s postcard – Greetings from California
State Capitol is Sacramento – State Flower: the California Poppy
ALSO SEE: Is it really illegal to pick a California poppy?
Oranges and snow in southern California
