A Brief History of Picture Postcards

Brief History of Picture Postcards
 

“Nothing is more nostalgic than the modernity of the past”

1869                        The Postal Service of Austro-Hungary issued pre paid cards that could be sent on their own without an envelope at half the price. They lacked however any pictorial matter.

1873                        The USA followed with their own official postal cards, basically unwrapped mail. Germany alone started to develop pictorial cards, allowing space under the picture for a short message, and “Gruss Aus”,i.e.“Greetings From”.

1893                        America introduced the first picture postcard for Chicago’s  World’s Columbian Exposition. World’s Fairs were to become great generators of postcards sent, and collected, by their visitors as souvenirs. Hold-to-Light cards were particularly popular at the Paris Universal Expo in 1900.

1894                        In England the Post Office introduced rather unpopular square Court cards, 4.75 inches by 3.5 inches with a small picture on one side.

1899                        First International Illustrated Post card Exhibition in Venice. A Signore Besso had a collection of 6,000 cards

1899                        The Post Office introduced the standard size allowed by the Universal Postal Union; 5.5 inches by 3.5 inches { The Universal standard size is now 6 inches by 4 inches}.  The picture on one side had to include space for a message as the other side was exclusively for the address.

1899

1903

Raphael Tuck & Sons issued the first colour postcard featuring a painting of the Tower of London.

1902                        The Divided Back was introduced by the Post Office which allowed the address and message to be written on the one side. France adopted this new format in1904 and America followed suite in 1907.

1902-1915            The Golden Age of postcards, they became an essential part of everyday life, the new rapid communication media. Cheap and simple they joined word and image, with up to 7 deliveries a day. They were the text message and camera phone of their day, and became as ubiquitous as an e-mail today

 An estimated 350 million cards were sent in 1904, rising to 700 million in 1908 and 833 million in 1909. In 1903 a billion postcards passed through the German postal system.

1918 -1939            The telephone slowly replaced the postcard as a means of quick communication. Postcards became more a proof of travel, a “wish you were here” plus a “how are you” and “the cross shows were we are staying”. The growth of trains and holidays encouraged this growth. Saucy naughty cards developed, Donald McGill in UK [12,000 cards] and Bamforth in the USA with up to 16 million a year.

White borders became popular 1915-1930, and linen backed cards from 1930 -1950.

1945-1970            The rapid growth in holiday entitlement and overseas travel  resulted in a second golden age, this time of holiday cards of the “ Greetings from Margate” style.

1970- on            There has been a gentle decline due to increasing use of camera phones and e-mail.