Who Was the Wag Named Arthur Brissette?

Photos courtesy of Ralph Allen

When a Boise couple dropped by IDAHO magazine’s office recently, the topic came up of the quirky pig postcards on these pages. Ralph Allen mentioned he had compiled a collection of about 2,800 Idaho postcards, including several of “The Cottonwood Pigs.” He didn’t know who the driver of the cart was, other than the name “Prof. Arthur Brissette,” but we agreed with him it was someone with a good sense of humor.

Ralph, an architect who spent much of his career in historic preservation for NASA in Alabama, began collecting postcards about thirty-five years ago in that state. He and his wife Linda now split their time between Idaho and Alabama.

Doing his bit for Idaho history, Ralph gave us permission to publish these images from his postcard collection showing not only the pigs but other Cottonwood scenes back in the day. But the question remains: who was Arthur Brissette?