Ken Wilson’s book, Snapshots and Short Notes, grew out of a life-long fascination with history and the faint whispers that unassuming artifacts offer about other lives and other places. Wilson has an MBA from the University of Texas, but he worked for many years as a craftsman and silversmith. While he would rather be called an acquisitor, as in one who acquires, in reality he has been a collector since childhood. Vintage postcards fit nicely into collections, and he has accumulated, catalogued, and researched real photo postcards for over 30 years.
To Ken, the appeal of collecting postcards was their presentation of art and history, as well as the precise, direct details of the human narrative. They are only thin slivers of larger stories, but slivers delivered directly to the observer without passing through the sieve of abridgment or merger. The archive of old postcards that exists world-wide has fueled Wilson’s research and writing about the Golden Age of Postcards and its marvelous relics of American history.
Ken shares a home in the country with his wife, the artist Debbie Little-Wilson. Children and grandchildren visit often and several armadillos and a family of foxes live just down the hill.