Before color photography was available, postcard publishers used to hand-tint black and white photos. The postcard above looks like some exceptional night photography, but in reality it's this photo, with painted embellishments.
Here are several more examples, contributed by Bill Robie:
Many publishers of postcards in the early 1900s embellished their images. They added features not really there, removed features they felt unattractive, incorrectly placed features in the wrong location and even moved features from out of view into the scene to enhance the visual.
This first example adds the image of an Indian chief in the lower right corner. The thought probably was that the Indian will make the card more saleable. No one worried about where or on what the Indian is standing. Notice the five mounted horsemen on the top of Castle Rock. Probably real.
Look closely at this scene of Golden and you will notice that the winding Lookout Mountain road passes behind the front face of Mt. Zion, rather than in-front as constructed. Also, the approach route to the base of the mountain, at least in part, seems imagined. And the alignment of the “Incline RR” (Lookout Mountain Park Funicular) was actually constructed up the ridge to the right of where shown. Were the snow-capped mountains on the distant horizon added?
In this interesting photo image of Golden, everything looks true and accurate, but wait. Notice that the School of Mines Guggenheim Hall building has been repositioned about three blocks to the north (visually to the right of the old South School) perhaps to show Golden has even more impressive buildings than would otherwise be shown.
This is an unmodified photo of Washington Avenue except for the blue sky color wash.
This is the same photo (colorized) with a number of additions and deletions. The four people in the middle of the street have been added. Apparently, the telephone or electric poles and the wagon tracks were all considered unattractive and removed.
Thanks to Bill Robie for his sharp eye and keep insights!
