Halloween Postcard with 'Let This Be A Warning To You...'

The postcard Wishing you a Merry Halloween captures the evolving nature of the holiday in the early 20th century, a period when Halloween was transitioning from an adult-centric, often rowdy, celebration to one increasingly focused on children and more organized fun. The imagery, featuring a stern gnome and a young boy with pumpkins and cornstalks, reflects a blend of traditional autumn harvest motifs and emerging holiday iconography. Gnomes and similar folkloric creatures were popular in children's literature and illustrations of the era, often imbued with a sense of guardianship or cautionary wisdom, as suggested by the Officer Gnome message.