The Flying Wards Postcard "A Sugar Cane Mill"

This postcard was one of many sent by the traveling aerial act called “The Flying Wards” to their mother while they were on the road with their act. 

This act involved the brother and sister Eddie and Jennie Ward from Bloomington, Illinois. They created an act where they would double-trapeze with one another and it gained much notoriety across the whole of the US. Once they gained more popularity they settled back into Bloomington, IL, and created the “Ward Barn” where they would tweak and enhance their performance to create more elaborate jumps and stunts. 

Through this, they inspired many preceding trapeze acts and are permanently a crucial part of the Bloomington trapeze legacy.  This originally hand-painted and then reproduced through printing postcard was just one of many the Ward duo would send their mother throughout their career. On the back of this postcard, Eddie wrote “From your boy Edward” and there is an excerpt stating the workings of a sugar mill and the sugar cane-making season. To view this postcard and the others that show the growth and success of the Ward duo you can find them at https://library.illinoisstate.edu/collections/ward-postcards/ .