From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Post Office & General Store, South Kent, Conn. 26.
Scene of a rural roadside retail establishment in a simple Victorian house, with barns adjacent. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to cover New England or upstate New York. The quest for images that would be saleable as postcards resulted in the documentation of small towns and small town life at the turn of the 20th century. As the photos were shot, the glass plates were sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. As he did in many of the small towns he passed through, the Eastern photographer stops to snap a picture of the ubiquitous Post Office and General store. As often was the case, the enterprises occupied an existing house or other structure. Barns from what was likely a farmstead in this agricultural area stand at the left, also decorated randomly with advertising for Pillsbury Flour and Hyperion Cigars.
