“Halloween,” color postcard, ca. 1910s. Author’s private collection.

 Playing with Mischievous Pumpkins

Most jack-o’-lantern figures from the first half of the twentieth century were more sinister than the sweet and cuddly cartoon characters common today.  Like the jack-o’-lantern in this postcard, it usually had a macabre head  attached to a body that moved about to wreck havoc on those in its path. As the personification of wild nature, it was full of vim and vigor, not comfort.