Species of giant cactus, San Antonio, TX, circa 1930

About this postcard

A tall, branching columnar cactus rises from rocky ground, with low desert shrubs and a bright sky behind it. The printed caption identifies it only as a "SPECIES OF GIANT CACTUS," leaving the kind unnamed; the branching form resembles a saguaro, the giant cactus of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Sonora. San Antonio sits in south-central Texas, well east of the saguaro's desert range, so the caption reads as a general souvenir label rather than a field identification. The card belongs to the wave of Western view cards that publishers turned out for tourists and collectors in the 1930s and 1940s.