Postcards Help Us Picture the Past

 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.

Early Postcards

The first postcards in the U.S. were authorized by Congress on 27 February 1861, which allowed for privately printed cards to be sent by mail. A decade later, on 1 May 1873, the U.S. government began producing its own cards, one side for a message and the other side for an address. This second law also stipulated that only government cards could be called "Postal Cards," and they would cost just one cent to mail instead of the two cents for privately printed cards.

(Image to the right from Wikimedia Commons, in the public domain)

That blank space on the other side of the cards quickly became a place for creative minds to start placing images. During the 1880s, postcards became canvases for images created by the newly discovered process of chromolithography. By the time of the Paris Exposition in 1889, excited visitors were mailing home pre-printed cards with the stunning new Eiffel Tower printed on them and postmarked from the structure itself. At the same time, postcards became appropriate places for photographs. At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, a publisher called Charles W. Goldsmith produced a set of postcards featuring many of the popular exhibits in color. "These were the first commercially produced pictorial postcards to be printed as a souvenir in the United States, and they proved to be a sensational hit." ("History of Postcards," World Postcard Day, 2024, https://worldpostcardday.com/history)

On 19 May 1898, Congress struck down the disparity between mailing privately printed cards and Postal Cards. Messages were still not allowed on the address side, however, but the other side was fair game!

The Golden Age of Postcards: Divided Backs

By the turn of the twentieth century, postcards were everywhere. With mail pickups and deliveries multiple times a day, postcards were cheap, convenient, and easy to obtain and use. They were the equivalent of today's text messages or emails, and as they became more popular, more and more artwork, photos, and designs graced their empty sides.

The U.S. Congress accepted an agreement by many European countries, and, beginning on 1 October 1907, one side of each postcard could be divided with room for both address and message, leaving the entire other side for decoration. This ushered in what was called the "Golden Age of Postcards," and billions were bought and sold until right before World War I.  Buying, exchanging, and collecting postcards became a craze in millions of homes.

During this time, photographs on postcards also increased in popularity. Kodak developed a "postcard camera," that produced negatives of the exact size to fit a postcard, "complete with a divided back and place for postage."

These two postcards from St. Louis show a souvenir from the 1904 World's Fair and a photograph of Olive Street west of Eighth Street dated 1908. The top card has the older format of message written on the front and the entire back for an address. The second card has the newer split back, leaving the front for a photograph. Each card cost just a penny to mail.

(Postcards in the author's collection; public domain)

The End of an Era

Once the situation in Europe devolved into war, American printers, without the publishing finesse of their German counterparts, began to print cards with white borders around them, saving ink and cutting into the space for messages by describing the image on the other side. By the time of World War II, paper quality changed to what looked like linen, but was actually a cheaper paper made with a high content of rags. Although this allowed for brighter colors, the cards were losing popularity. New telecommunications systems also slowed the need for this form of message sharing, and the heyday of postcards faded.

For many of our ancestors, postcards were a source of entertainment and contact. Families that were split by migration could stay in touch with each other. They could celebrate holidays and special events across the miles, and they could share visits, vacations, and life events. Going to a new city? Send a postcard. Traveling to the World's Fair or embarking on a cruise? Send a postcard. Just want to say, "Happy Birthday"? Send a postcard.

How We Can Use Postcards in Genealogy

We can take advantage of postcards as we work on our family history research because so many are still easily accessible. 

• Most antiques malls or shops have baskets of them, and we can find images of villages, towns, streets, buildings, and more from the places where our people lived, worked, and played, both in the U.S. and in Europe. 
• If we are lucky, perhaps we have a family photo or two printed on a postcard that is dated and sent to a family member, giving us information about where people were at a particular time and place. 
• Look for postcards of the ships your ancestors sailed on, the kinds of cars or trains they may have used, and the communities in which they lived.
• Street scenes may contain images of schools, businesses, even houses where your ancestors lived, and they certainly will give you the flavor of neighborhoods as they used to be.

More Resources

"Greetings from the Smithsonian: A Postcard History," Smithsonian History Archives, https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/postcard/postcard-history

"Wish You Were Here!: The Story of the Golden Age of Picture Postcards in the United States," by Fred Bassett, New York State Library, 2021, https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/qc16510ess.htm