Bear cub in a tree, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 1956

About this postcard

A black bear cub clings to the trunk of a large tree and peers around it toward the camera, with open sky behind. The printed caption reads "A Bear Cub in Tree in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park," and a second line adds that "this little fellow looks as if he were posing for the picture." Black bears became the park's most photographed residents after Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in 1934 along the Tennessee-North Carolina line. Bears fed along the roadsides drew crowds of motorists, and cubs like this one turned up on countless souvenir cards sold in gateway towns such as Gatlinburg and Cherokee. Asheville Post Card Co. of Asheville, North Carolina, published many of these views for the tourist trade. This example was mailed from St. Thomas, Ontario, in 1956, and the sender's note about Canadian orchards calls the picture Niagara Falls, a mismatch worth flagging for the reviewer.