Miami Memories: A Midcentury Journey (in Postcards)

Table of Contents

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.