Postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope.
While the United States government allowed privately printed cards as early as February 1861, they saw little use until 1870, when experiments were done on their commercial viability.
[7][2] A Prussian postal official, Heinrich von Stephan, first proposed an "open post-sheet" made of stiff paper in 1865.
[8] In October 1869, the post office of Austria-Hungary accepted a similar proposal, also without images, and 3 million cards were mailed within the first three months.
[1][8] With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, the government of the North German Confederation decided to take the advice of Austrian Emanuel Herrmann and issued postals for soldiers to inexpensively send home from the field.
The cards had a lithographed design printed on them containing emblematic images of piles of armaments on either side of a scroll topped by the arms of the Duchy of Brittany and the inscription "War of 1870.
On July 16, 1870, he mailed a post correspondence card with an image of a man with a cannon, signaling the looming Franco-Prussian war.
Private advertising cards started appearing in the United States around 1873, and qualified for a special postage rate of one cent.
[7] Still, the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 excited many attendees with its line of "Official Souvenir" postals, which popularized the idea of picture postcards.
Spanning from approximately 1905 to 1915 in the United States, the golden age of postcards stemmed from a combination of social, economic, and governmental factors.
[1] The effects of tariffs really started to make a large impact, and escalating hostilities in Europe made it difficult to import cards and ink into the United States.
[20] "White border" cards, which existed prior to the war, were produced in greater numbers from roughly 1915 to 1930 in the United States.
[1][2] Finally, the modern era of Photochrom (often shortened simply to "chrome") postcards began in 1939, and gained momentum around 1950.
[2] Postcard sales dropped to around 25% of 1990s levels,[23] with the growing popularity of social media around 2007, resulting in closure of long-established printers such as J Salmon Ltd in 2017.
The larger size was found to be slightly too large for ease of handling, and was soon withdrawn in favour of cards 13mm (1⁄2 inch) shorter.
With steam locomotives providing fast and affordable travel, the seaside became a popular tourist destination, and generated its own souvenir-industry.
They were often bawdy in nature, making use of innuendo and double entendres, and traditionally featured stereotypical characters such as vicars, large ladies, and put-upon husbands, in the same vein as the Carry On films.
In the early 1950s, the newly elected Conservative government were concerned at the apparent deterioration of morals in the UK and decided on a crackdown on these postcards.
Sold by newsagents and street vendors, as well as by specialist souvenir shops, modern seaside postcards often feature multiple depictions of the resort in unusually favourable weather conditions.
John Hinde used saturated colour and meticulously planned his photographs, which made his postcards of the later twentieth century become collected and admired as kitsch.
For example, the United States Postal Service would only allow the delivery of postcards showing a back view of naked men from Britain if their posteriors were covered with a black bar.
Affected postcards that were successfully sent through the Ottoman Empire before this date (and are postmarked accordingly) have a high rarity value and are considered valuable by collectors.
[35] In 1908, §3893 was added to the Comstock Act, stating that the ban included material "tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination".
[37] Postal control was eventually introduced in all of the armies, to find the disclosure of military secrets and test the morale of soldiers.
[37] American censors would only open mail related to Spain, Latin America or Asia—as their British allies were handling other countries.
[38] Those writing postcards in the field knew they were being censored, and deliberately held back controversial content and personal matters.
[37] For example, German censors prevented postcards with hostile slogans such as "Jeder Stoß ein Franzos" ("Every hit a Frenchman") among others.
[16] Anytime there was a major event, a postcard photographer was there to document it (including celebrations, disasters, political movements, and even wars).
[16] Commemorating popular humor, entertainment, fashion, and many other aspects of daily life, they also shed light on transportation, sports, work, religion, and advertising.
In addition, these websites include collection management tools, trading platforms, and forums to assist with discussions between collectors.
