Folk Art. Radio history. Social media of the 1970s. Big business. CB Radio QSL cards were a big fad for a changing world and are a fascinating glimpse into a forgotten craze. This booklet showcases cards from all over the state of Washington and is meant to give a small glimpse into the variety of artists, styles, locations and handles that defined CB Radio QSL cards in the Evergreen State. All cards are from the collection of Jordan Smith of the website 73sand88s.com

For this heavily illustrated booklet (created for 3 day exhibition in Seattle), Public Collectors joined forces with QSL card collector Jordan Smith to produce a 40 page booklet that features over 60 QSL cards from Smith’s collection. Nearly all are reproduced at actual size or larger.

QSL cards are a fascinating part of vernacular design history and, given that little seems to exist in the way of audio recordings of people’s CB radio channels, these cards are just about all that is left of 1970s CB and Ham radio culture. QSL cards also feature some wonderful and extremely peculiar artwork—often seemingly created by the radio operators themselves.

This booklet includes a four page essay by Smith about QSL cards where he shares a bit of the story of Jess Anderson. Anderson created art for several thousand QSL cards under the name Runnin’ Bare, and this booklet also reproduces includes eight examples of his work. - Public Collectors