Nathanial Wolfgang-Price

Experience the beautiful colors and exotic flavors that help define Hawaii as paradise. Luscious postcards from the early 20th century draw readers through alluring days of Hawaii's history as a booming tourist, agricultural, and, most importantly, Polynesian cultural center. General history and more than 350 actual hand-tinted photos capture the allure of native villages, early city life, the first resort hotels, and natural wonders including volcanoes, waterfalls, and amazing flora and palm-studded vistas. The images portray the unique cast-net fishing aquaculture of Hawaii, their outrigger canoes and surfboards, and the hula dancers and beautiful island girls who have become legendary worldwide. Comments from early visitors, captured from the back of the postcards, are included to illuminate authentic impressions of these islands. Dating and approximate values will assist collectors in assembling their own collection of these inspiring images.

Be transported back to a Golden Era in Miami history. Nearly 250 mid-century postcards portray bikini-clad tourists, tropical cabana nightclubs, and beaches crowded with basking vacationers, along with the private yachts, the fragrant orange groves, and the colorful flamingos, flowers, and neon splendor of the region. Architecture fans, preservationists, and historians will delight in these views of the city and its fabulous hotel resorts developed in the 1920s and '30s. These tourist destinations embodied the Tropical Deco style -- an aesthetic that combined streamlined Art Deco with the exotic elements that were locally inspired. These images also illustrate the re-birth of streamlining in the 1950s, and the creation of the city's treasured MiMo or Miami Modern style. Many of these treasured architectural landmarks are now lost to further development. The "Miami Magic" that drew the rich and famous then, still caters to droves of Americans and Europeans who flock there by land, sea, and air. Here is a fantastic mini-history of the city and its allure.