Indianola Park was never a prodigious advertiser. It rarely ran large advertisements. It rarely ran illustrated advertisements.

Most Sundays, it ran a small piece (2-4 column inches), usually in The Ohio State Journal, announcing the coming week's attractions. The park's press agents would usually provide the papers with a short piece to run in the "Amusements" section as well.

There are gaps in the park's advertising. From 1917-21 and again from 1928 until the park's demise in 1937, almost no ads appear. I don't know the reason for these lapses.

Indianola Park was unlike its competitor Olentangy Park. Olentangy Park advertised constantly and flamboyantly.

It was also unlike its other nearby rival, Smith's Iuka Dance Garden and Roller Rink which almost never advertised but outlived both Olentangy and Indianola.

Apart from newspaper ads, another way Indianola promoted itself was through postcards. Introduced at the World's Colombian Expo in Chicago in 1893, penny postcards became massively popular in the first decades of the Twentieth Century.

Based on years combing eBay and antique shows, there seem to be about twenty Indianola Park postcards out there.

The most common view is from the southwest corner of the pool, taking in the pool, dance pavilion, and Figure 8 roller coaster. The same bathers can be seen in many of the postcards, suggesting that the artists were working from the same photograph.

There are also cards of the shoot-the-chutes ride, the picnic grounds, and the rustic bridge leading to the picnic grounds.

The most unusual Indianola Park postcard I have ever seen was a familiar scene of the pool and pavilion but etched on a postcard-sized sheet of very thin aluminum. I've only seen this once. Unfortunately, it was prohibitively priced.

The 1906 multi-view postcard at left is also a rarity. I've only seen it for sale once.

Apart from newspaper ads and postcards, Indianola found other ways to promote itself. Many of these, such as signs, handbills, and banners, have not survived to the present day.

The picture below shows one such sign.

West Broad St. streetcar with Indianola Park advertisement, 1905. Courtesy of Biography, History & Travel Division, Columbus Metropolitan Library