The author of many of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park postcards is Emma (Frances) Bogart of the Bogart family. Frances, as she like to be called, was born to Ada Cox and Charles J. Bogart in Loudon, Tennessee on November 23, 1917. Frances Bogart had three borthers, Howard, C.J. and Birch Bogart. Norene and Virginia Bogart were her sisters as well as her frequent postcard receivers. Not much information is known about her family, except that her sister, Norene was born on August 27, 1915 and passed away on April 14, 2012, outliving her younger sister, Frances, by a little less than a year. Emma Frances Bogart was also an active member in the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as the Daughters of the Confederacy. Frances, as she preferred, was a Sunday school teacher at Angels Heights Baptist Church in Texas and at Inskip Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. After attending San Angelo Junior College in Texas, Hiawassee College in Tennessee, and the University of Tennessee, she received a BS in Elementary Education. With her degree complete, Bogart started her teaching career as the Principal of New providence Elementary School in Loudon County, Tennessee. The Knoxville City School System was her last teaching position before she retired after 32 years of teaching. As of June 8, 2011, she is buried at the Lynnhurst Cemetery with her some of her family members. Bogart family is said to be descendants of the First Families of Tennessee.

Postcards are a recently 19th century invention that allowed people to write a short message to one another on a pre-stamped card. When they were originally developed, having first assumed the shape of an ordinary letter and stamp, the postcard was a "Private Mailing Card," which was approved by Congress on May 19, 1898. Around 1900 is about the time when postcards began to look like our modern postcard. Illustrations in ink as well as photographing on the backs of the mailing card began to take place in the early 1900s.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. The many ridges and hills that populate the expanse of cherished land is a part of the Appalachian Trail that runs from Northern Georgia to Maine. According to the park's website, the Smoky Mountains receives about 8 to 10 million visitors each year. Also, some of the Great Smoky Mountain postcards are collected and stored here at the University of Tennessee within the McClung Museum.