Photographer Ed Herbener Produced Many of Delmarva’s Real Photo Postcards

Almost everyone enjoys looking at old postcards from around the Delmarva Peninsula. Plying the trade that produced these tiny early 20th century time capsules were a number of local and itinerant photographs.

One of them was Edward Herbener, a Newark photographer. The Newark Post said in 1910: “Mr. Herbener is one of the pioneers in the post card business. He not only furnishes views of Newark, but makes views for the trade from New York to North Carolina. He has built up quite a business in this line. He also makes fancy cards. And all this work is done in Newark. . . .”. .”

Herbener, whose business flourished during the height of the post card craze, produced many of Delmarva’s real photos postcards, and we are fortunate that he was such a prolific artist. Around one hundred years old, these old views provide a visual record of day-to-day life, solid visual evidence of the past. In this era, photographers were few and far between, and many people did not have a camera, so images weren’t as common as they are today.

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