The collection consists of picture postcards of street scenes, parks, public buildings, businesses, monuments, educational institutions, scenes along the Hudson River, and other views in and around Troy, New York as well as a small set of postcards of bridges built by RPI engineers.
The years 1900 to 1920 are widely regarded as the golden age of postcards, when they began to be used both as souvenirs and as an inexpensive means of communication. The majority of the postcards withi this collection date from that period, and depict a variety of buildings and public spaces in and around Troy, New York and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The images included here are a small fraction of the Postcard Collectionheld by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Archives and Special Collections Department.
