This is an unused, undated Rally Day postcard published by United Lutheran Publishing House1 of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In many denominations, Rally Day happens sometime between mid-September and early October, and it marks the start of the church calendar year. (Note that the leaves on the tree in the illustration are just starting to change color.)
Rally Day is a customary time to launch Sunday School, hand out Bibles to children and unveil a church's goals for the new year. It is also, of course, a prime time for recruiting and welcoming new members. And so Rally Day postcards were both a reminder and a marketing tool. (Perhaps Facebook has replaced Rally Day postcards, in this regard.)
Here's a look at the fill-in-the-blanks text on the back of the postcard.
Postcards and churches went hand-in-hand for many decades in the United States. Back in February, I featured some colorful vintage "We Missed You at Church" postcards.
Today's postcard is from a large cache of old church postcards I recently came across. I'll share more of those in the coming weeks.
Footnote
1. I found examples of United Lutheran Publishing House books from as long ago as 1877 (Kirchenbuch Fur Evangelisch Lutherische Gemeiden). But I haven't discovered when the publisher was founded or (presumably) disbanded.
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