Cynthia Motzenbecker was the featured speaker at PHSNE’s June 2025 meeting, which is now available as a recording below. She is a long-time past president (18 years) and treasurer (20 years) of the Michigan Photographic Historical Society (MiPHS), a current board member, a long-time member and current board member of the Daguerreian Society, and also a long-time member of PHSNE.

Motzenbecker discusses her collection of real photo postcards (RPPCs). An RPPC is defined as a “continuous-tone photographic image printed on postcard stock. The term recognizes a distinction between the real photo process and the lithographic or offset printing processes employed in the manufacture of most postcard images” (source).

She writes, “This presentation will be of a relatively new kind of collection for me, after collecting since the late 1980s, as I never, ever, would look at RPPCs because I thought of them as a ‘time hole.’ Well, they have turned into a ‘money pit’ as I have discovered the massive variety within them. I do enjoy the consistent size of them, as I also collect board mounts, and they are a ‘size disaster.’ I love the RPPC’s ability to show intricate and detailed scenes.”

The collection features occupationals—store interiors and exteriors, anything technical, plus social history. Motzenbecker states, “I originally started collecting occupationals as I worked as an electrical engineering technician before computers took everything over. I knew all the contractors and practical laborers at work, so I could ask them about anything I didn’t understand. I learned a lot from them and enjoyed my job. I miss the fork truck the most; it taught me to think in 3-D.”

“Having a ‘collecting gene,’ I had to decide to collect cameras or images. I couldn’t afford many cameras, and images were flat plus readily available at the local flea markets and antique shows. Estate sales were always of interest too; I was also looking for vintage jewelry. Once, after sizing up a large table of unsorted cabinet cards for jewelry within, I found similar jewelry in the same photographer’s images. That settled the ‘hardware vs. image’ debate for me. Now it is more like a hoarding issue—and I thank the fates I have a very tolerant spouse.”

“Born in the 1950s in rural Wisconsin, my family soon landed in a suburb of Detroit that had a great school system. By junior high, there were three darkrooms within our ‘nerdy’ neighborhood block. In high school, I became the ‘mother of the darkroom,’ and was a photographer for the high school paper and yearbook.”

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