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Did You Ever Have A Dream Like This?” Fantasy Photographs — American Museum of Photography(SM)

“Did You Ever Have

A Dream Like This?”

Tall Tales have an honored place in American culture. From Paul Bunyan and King Kong to the legions of fishermen boasting about “the one that got away,” there is something about exaggeration that appeals to our sense of national grandeur. Perhaps it’s also our view that in the modern world, anything is possible. Giant hybrid crops? Sure. Rabbits the size of Buicks? Well–maybe.

Exactly this formula proved the key to oversize wealth and success for a photographer named William H. “Dad” Martin. In 1894, he took over a studio in Ottawa, Kansas. Martin began using trick photography in 1908, producing a series of wildly exaggerated post cards. These were so popular that he sold his studio the next year to concentrate on the post card business.

Within three years, Martin’s trick photos earned him a fortune. Demand was so strong that his firm reportedly purchased photographic emulsion by the railroad tank car-full (or was that another tall tale?) Martin sold the business in 1912 and founded the National Sign Company. So far as we know, he never again ventured into the darkroom. But during his brief career as a post card photographer, “Dad” Martin tapped into the national psyche with his own imaginative brand of homespun surrealism.

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	William H. Martin (1865-1940) Ottawa, Kansas: “When we go after anything we get it.” Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1909
William H. Martin (1865-1940) : (Untitled–Duck Hunters) Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1909 The message penned on the back of this card reads: “Did you ever have a dream like this?”
	William H. Martin (1865-1940) : The Modern Farmer. Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1910
William H. Martin (1865-1940) : “The Bass I Caught” Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1909 (Click on the image to see the very odd message written on the back of this card…)
	William H. Martin (1865-1940) : (Untitled–County Fair) Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1908
William H. Martin (1865-1940) : “Potatoes Grow Big in Our State” Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1908
	William H. Martin (1865-1940) : “Harvesting a Profitable Crop of Onions” Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1909
William H. Martin (1865-1940) : “‘Salted.’ So easy. Put salt on their tails.” Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1909
	William H. Martin (1865-1940) : “How We Take Our Geese to Market” Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1909