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BBBBA Century ofProgress %u25a0 Postcards %u25a0C.R. Childs Co.%u25a0 Partial Set %u25a0Charles R. Childs was born in 1875, in Elwood, Ill. At 14, his family moved to Joliet, where Charles worked for his uncles in their Pinneo grocery business, then was later employed by the Joliet Daily News, where he learned photography.In 1901, Childs opened a commercial photography business making postcards and taking on other printing jobs. Early on, he specialized in real-photo postcards, which were an instant hit because of his ability to capture the essence of his subjects. Childs was known for documenting small-town Illinois, something the smaller newspapers didn%u2019t have the facilities for, and the larger papers didn%u2019t care about. Along with the photographers he employed, his company produced an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 different postcards of the Midwest. He never married, and died of heart failure in 1960, at the age of 85. His death notice doesn%u2019t indicate any surviving relatives or friends who could fill in the missing details of his personal life.C.R. Childs published over 70 postcards of Chicago%u2019s Century of Progress Exposition, and this collection contains a small representative sampling of them.%u2756