An iconic landmark of Snoqualmie Valley, the 268-foot Snoqualmie Falls in Washington state has been the subject of countless postcards for more than 125 years. I was delighted to find a postcard with a stunning aerial image of the falls and surrounding landscape. I later discovered the photographer was a talented artist who spent decades documenting the Pacific Northwest.
SNOQUALMIE FALLS AND SNOQUALMIE VALLEY POSTCARD – C-311
The postcard’s front image features an aerial view of Snoqualmie Falls nestled in the shadow of Mount Si in Snoqualmie Valley, Washington.
The Snoqualmie Falls Lodge (before the Salish Lodge renovation in 1988) sits perched above the 268-foot waterfall. In the distance toward Mount Si on the left is the Weyerhaeuser’s former Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company sawmill. To the far right, you can see the small town of Snoqualmie.
The back of the card contains a description of the front image:
“SNOQUALMIE FALLS AND SNOQUALMIE VALLEY. This aerial view shows the falls and the valley through which the Sunset Highway passes over the Cascade mountains to Eastern Washington. To the left of the falls may be seen Snoqualmie Falls Lodge, one of the West’s most famous eating places.”
The Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum has a page for this card which dates it from 1960. But I believe it’s from either 1955 or 1956 based on a similar card I found on eBay.com with a cancelled stamp date of July 4, 1956.
WHO IS KOPPELL KOLOR CARDS FROM HAWTHORNE, NEW JERSEY?
The “K” in a diamond logo in the bottom left corner was the mark of Koppell Kolor (Color) Cards based in Hawthorne, New Jersey.
According to a former employee’s comment on a Hawthorne Historical Society Facebook post, the company “mainly printed 4-color process picture postcards, accordion folders & mini-albums for various tourist hot spots … [they] also printed reproduction 3-D cards for use in stereopticons. Everything was printed on Miehle one color printing presses – so every sheet of paper ended up passing through the press 4 times – yellow, cyan, magenta and finally the black.”
WHO IS J. BOYD ELLIS OF ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON?
The card was published by J. Boyd Ellis of Arlington, Washington.
John Boyd Ellis, or J. Boyd Ellis, was born July 25, 1894 in Perry, Iowa. He moved to Olympia, Washington around 1903, where he attended University of Washington and Western Washington University. Upon earning a teaching degree, Ellis became principal of Marysville High School until 1921 when he moved his family to Arlington, Washington. He became an Eastman Kodak dealer in a small shop on Main Street in the small Snohomish County town.
At the suggestion of a salesman in 1923, Ellis started making black-and-white photographs of the Pacific Northwest and turning them into postcards. He shot most of his photographs using a 4-by- 5 format Crown Graphic camera. Through his eyes, he captured beautiful scenery found throughout Washington, Oregon, Montana, British Columbia and Alaska.
His photography skills led to the creation of Ellis Post Card Co. which produced around 5,000 real photograph post cards. When Ellis, Sr. retired in 1959, his son Clifford B., who was born in 1919, assumed ownership of the family business.
Decades later in 1990, a longtime competitor, Tacoma-based Smith-Western Co., would purchase the then oldest postcard company in the state. Ellis, Sr. died in 1983 while his son Clifford passed in 1992.
WHO IS PHOTOGRAPHER JOSEF SCAYLEA?
The most exciting discovery for me was learning about Pacific Northwest photographer Josef Scaylea who took the Kodak Ektachrome photograph of Snoqualmie Valley. He served as the chief photographer of The Seattle Times for 35 years.
Ekatchrome was the follow up to Kodak’s Kodachrome film. First introduced in 1946, Ektachrome film could be developed in as little as 19 minutes on the photographer’s own premises, whereas the former Kodachrome usually had to be sent out for processing, and took a minimum of 24 hours. The film stock was known for bright, vibrant colors which was particularly useful for the aerial view of Snoqualmie Falls.
Starting in 1947. Scaylea worked at The Times bringing magazine-style photography into weekend sections, onto the front page, and for years, onto a picture page.
“He pioneered pictorial photography and portrait photography for us.” said James B. “Jim” King, retired executive editor in Scaylea’s obituary from 2004.
After working on his family orchard in South Glastonbury, Connecticut during his childhood, he studied photography in New York in the mid-1930s. Drafted into the military two days after the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, he served in the Army Air Corp photographing missions over Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines.
While being stationed at Paine Field and Moses Lake, Washington, he fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and never left.
He published seven books, including the 1981 book “In Moods of the Mountain,” which showed Mount Rainier from many vantage points and in different kinds of weather and lighting.
He also received more than 1.000 photography awards, including recognition from Look, Life, Graflex, and the National Press Photographers Association. Scaylea was named West Coast Photographer of the Year 10 times, and one of the 10 top Press Photographers of the Nation on 10 occasions.
“What I remember is his use of contrasts,” said Cowlitz Historical Museum director David Freece in an article published on July 13, 1995 in The Daily News. “It seems like every one of his photos used black and white most effectively. There would be a real deep black where you could see no details, as well as some stark white – a full range of contrasts.”
Josef passed from natural causes at the age of 91 on July 19, 2004. You can still find his work online at a website run by his daughters.
His photograph of the falls and Valley make me want to return to see those fantastic trees.
Download a high-resolution image of this postcard and many other from my Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/albums/72177720314797263/
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