Old Postcards – A Variety For Sure!

Included among my collection of old postcards are a small number of specialty or novelty cards. 

Cards with messages have been created and mailed since postal services began.  However, the earliest known picture postcard was created in England in 1840, with its author mailing it to himself.  It was probably a practical joke on the postal service as the image on the card is a caricature of postal workers.

Note: This earliest ‘picture’ postcard as described above, complete with a ’penny black’ stamp, was sold in 2002 for 31,750 BP, or approximately $48,000 US.

This postcard showing a loving couple at the beach certainly reflects the times when it was printed.  Both subjects are modestly clothed and the male is even wearing a suit!  The woman’s eyes appear focused elsewhere… The card was mailed from Keokuk Iowa to Kahoka Missouri on 12/3/1912.

The first American postcard was developed in 1873 by the Morgan Envelope Factory in Springfield Massachusetts.  They depicted the Interstate Industrial Exposition that was held in Chicago that year.  

This is one of my earliest postcards.  It was mailed from Philadelphia Pennsylvania on 7/24/1903.  Love the fashionable beachwear, don’t you?

In late 1873, the US Postal Service introduced the first pre-stamped “Postal Cards”.  Postcards were developed because people were looking for an easy way to send quick notes…

I generally avoid buying postcards that weren’t mailed and which lack a postage stamp and postmark.  This undated card must have been included in an envelope as on the reverse it states “Velma from Glen” and “He says this is an ‘auto-bile’.  Humor and/or a critique?

The first US postcard that was printed as a souvenir was created in 1893 to advertise the World’s Columbian Exposition that was held in Chicago Illinois.  

Many collectors specialize in greeting card style postcards.  Cards for birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, illness and other important life events were printed.  Most of them were very colorful…many of them were a bit ‘over-the-top’ from a decorative viewpoint.  This postcard was mailed from Ottawa Kansas on 9/19/1910.  It was a birthday greeting from a sister to her brother.

Note: Initially only the US Post Office was allowed to print postcards.  It maintained its monopoly until 5/19/1898, when Congress passed the ‘Private Mailing Card Act’.  This legislation allowed private publishers and printers to produce postcards.

Postcard ‘humor’ was a popular theme… This hapless Romeo smooching with his love, got dunked in the water barrel, no doubt cooling his ardor… The postcard was mailed on 5/26/1907 from Kansas City Missouri to a single gal in Hot Springs Virginia.

Note: Even after the Post Office and Congress allowed private companies to print postcards, at first they were prohibited from using the term, so they were known as ‘souvenir cards’.  Officially they were labeled “Private Mailing Cards”.  This prohibition was rescinded on Christmas Eve 1901…

Here’s another example of early twentieth century humor.  It was sent from and to Jersey Shore Pennsylvania on 5/17/1907.  Although women used postcards more than men, this card was sent to a man and all evidence suggests that it was sent by another man.  The ‘proof’…no written message!

Note: Initially postcards could not have a divided or split back.  Any message had to be written on the front. (As illustrated on my ‘bathing beauty’ postcard) This was the ‘undivided back’ era of postcards.  After 3/1/1907, private citizens could write on the address side, hence the ‘divided back postcards that we have today.

This early postcard is another one that was never actually mailed.  Since it has a ‘divided’ back, we do know that it was printed sometime after March 1907.  I acquired it for 2 reasons.  First, the images are raised or embossed.  Secondly, the play on words/humor is so bad, I couldn’t resist it!

Note: The official term for postcard collecting is ‘deltiology’.  This hobby is thought to be one of 3 largest collectable hobbies in the world after numismatics (coin collecting) and philately (stamp collecting). 

You can tell that this postcard was prior to March of 1907 in the ‘undivided era’ of postcards.  This humorous card includes the line “Drop a Nickel Please”.  The card was mailed from one local post office to another in Monticello Iowa on 11/14/1906.  I can think of a number of other punch lines that could have been for this scene!

While these ‘varietal’ postcards are interesting and fun to collect, I still prefer those depicting city or 'townscapes', historical sites, early transportation, old buildings and other scenes which depict life and circumstance in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  They provide a pictorial record of life as it was at the time.

Just click on any of the picture to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave