Monday, March 30, 2015
howeenterprise.com
Page #11
Learn about your antiques and collectibles with Georgia Caraway publishers offered view cards, holiday greetings, topicals, and artist-signed picture postcards in ever-increasing numbers.
In 1869, based on a proposal by Dr. Emanuel Hermann, Austria introduced the first government-issued postal card. Postal cards were an instant hit and many other European countries (in 1870, 1871, 1872) rapidly adopted them as an inexpensive way to send written messages.
The official figures from the golden age of the postcards (1898-1918) offer a glimpse at postcard popularity: official figures from the USPS for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, cited 677,777,798 postcards mailed in this country. That was at a time when the total population of the US was 88,700,000. And these figures do not include the vast number of postcards collected in albums and never mailed.
Hollywood, California has hard candy “California oranges inside. A pair of suede moccasins with beadwork has a mailing card attached with a string. The card reads, “A lucky pair of moccasins I surely hope they’ll fit, they’re all the rage, around this place, so I know they’ll make a hit.” All required one and onehalf cents postage to mail them. My favorites include a postal oddity from Kansas City of a wooden heart with a metal nut inside and a message that reads “I’m Nuts About You,”, a plastic viewer from Fort Worth with a shot of the Will Rogers Coliseum (a later mailer that required 3 cents), and a wooden Scotty dog with a thumbtack eye. Painted on his side is “Having a dog gone good time in Dallas, Texas.”
The popularity of postcards ended in 1918, The first to be printed in the United States were when Hallmark introduced its folding greeting governmental postals in 1873. Almost at once cards. In no small measure, the popularity of American businesses realized that the postcard George Eastman’s do-it-yourself Brownie could be used for advertising. Companies began camera also contributed to the diminished As you plan your summer vacations, send lots printing product names and addresses of sales appeal of the postcard to travelers. of postcards to friends and family. And have a locations on the blank side and mailing the cards dog gone good time! in large numbers to potential customers (early I have always been fascinated in the types of junk mail!) materials other than letters, cards, and postcards that were mailed between the 1930s A fad was launched around 1880 when pictures and 1950s without benefit of an outside began appearing on one side of the postcards. wrapper. I have a modest collection of about The first images were mostly primitive 10 or so “postcards” that have a small postal engravings of buildings and lithographed card that allows for the mailing address and pictures of ships, animals, and human figures. return address and stamp on one side. Each of Initially, these non-government, privatelythem says “greetings” and some have short printed cards required the higher postage of messages such as “Howdy! Souvenir of The letters. The fad exploded in the Gay Nineties Ozarks,” or “A little remembrance of where (1893) when souvenir postcards were produced I’ve been,” with an attached U.S. mail bag that for the Columbian Exposition. has photographs of the place visited inside the bag. I have another mailbag for a different In the United States, the Private Mailing Card tourist location and the message reads, “May Act eliminated the disparity in postage between this little bag with a view or two, Lessen the governmental postals and privately printed cards miles between me and you.” A miniature in 1898. Freed from unfair competition, private wooden crate from the Farmer’s Market in
