More than a century before anyone sent an email or text message, the postcard was born. Evolving from a series of alternatives to long, tedious letter writing, the postcard as we know it was created by Dr. Emanuel Herrmann, an economics professor in Austria, whose ideas came to the attention of the Austrian Post, which, on 1 October 1869, created a Correspondenz-Karte. Printed on light-brown paper, about the size of a 3" x 5" index card, it had space on one side for an address, a blank back for a message, and a pre-printed stamp in the upper right. Most importantly, it cost half the price of a letter! Within just a few years, postcards were in wide use throughout the world. Today, postcards can assist in your genealogy research as well.
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