A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Gaiety Girls
A term used in England referring to the popular portraits of actresses that were continually published on postcards.

Gallery Card
A postcard published by an artist or art gallery to announce an upcoming exposition. They are usually not sold but given out free for advertising. These cards often take on a traditional form but can be found in many sizes and as novelties. Gallery cards are not usually printed in quantity since they are made to publicize a one time limited event.

Galvanography
A reproductive method where a printing plate can be exactly duplicated in copper by electroplating a cast of the original. Though this method can be used to duplicate any surface in relief, galvanography is mostly used to reproduce engraved copper plates.

Gang Print (Gang Run)
The printing of more than one print job on a single press at the same time. As presses grew larger so did their ability to print many small objects simultaneously on large paper sheets or webs that would later be cut apart. The plates however were usually multiples of the same image. Gang printing combined the different forms from different images and from different clients on one press bed where the printing requirements such as the size of the run and the paper to be used were the same. Dexter Press is credited as the first to use this method.

GAR
Short for Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans association open to all who fought with the Union army in the American Civil War. Gatherings would take place on May 30th (Decoration Day), when they would decorate the graves of fallen comrades. This organization also took part in the dedication of Civil War memorials, parades, and battlefield reenactments. The last such event took place in 1949, and the last member died in 1956. Many patriotic postcards were created around this group’s activities.

Gaslight Paper (Contact Paper)
A photo paper covered with a silver chloride gelatin emulsion that could be exposed with light from a gas lamp, and then fixed in a dimly lit room. In the 19th century most papers could only be exposed with sunlight because of their poor light sensitivity, and the ability to expose a paper to gaslight for only 20 to 40 seconds denoted speed. Today the term gaslight is used to indicate a paper’s slowness for they still needed to be contact printed and could not be used with an enlarger. By 1903 there were 34 brands of this paper including Argo, Azo, Cyko, Kruxo, and Velox. These were all developing out papers except for Azo, a printing out paper.

Gelatin
A colorless, transparent, brittle protein extracted from the skin, bones, and connective tissue of animals. Through a long curing process utilizing acids and alkalis, the molecular structure of collagen is broken down into a form with weaker molecular bonds creating gelatin. The nature of gelatin is to be absorbent; it swells in cold water and dissolves in hot. This characteristic has made it useful for photo reproductive processes.

Gelatin Tissue
A gelatin sheet, patented by Joseph Wilson Swan in 1864, that is photosensitized with potassium dichromate, which then acts as a acid resist. Two years latter a tissue that could be dried and stored was made commercially available. After being exposed to a transparency the tissue could be adhered to a printing plate using alcohol. When the paper backing is removed only a thin gelatin membrane (tissue) is left behind which could be washed out with water. This gelatin relief acts as a resist to the following etch in proportion to its exposure to light. Prior to this time, exposures could only be made with sunlight and this new tissue became indispensable for transferring images onto difficult surfaces such as heavy litho-stones and rotary cylinders. The Autochrome Printing & Publishing Co. purchased the rights to this invention in 1886. Gelatin tissue is so closely based on Potevin’s earlier carbon tissue it is often referred to by the same name.

Generic
A postcard depicting scenery with no discernible features that could identify a specific location. Some cards without identifiable subjects were purchased for the basic attractiveness of the scene, even though many cards depicting the exact same scenes of beaches, country ponds, or wood lined roads were printed with the names of different locations on them. Often the words Greetings From would be pre-printed on the card, the remaining text to be supplied by the retailer. This not only allowed for more opportunities to sell the card, it provided postcards for communities that might not otherwise had any postcards at all. Even when the postcard does not literally depict a town, it may have been used by the people of that town as if it did, and in an obtuse way it becomes historically attached to that place. Generics were also often used to depict military scenes. In this way images sought out by the public during wartime could be supplied without exposing any sensitive information.

Gesetzlich Geschutzt
A term sometimes found on postcards and other objects of German manufacture. It is often mistaken for a publishers name but it actually means Legally Protected or Patented.

Ghost Halftone
A lightly printed halftone that has solid areas of translucent colors printed over it.

Giants
Oversized postcards printed as souvenirs for expositions. Giants first made their appearance in 1908 but they were only used in Europe.

Gibson Girl
An illustrated female character drawn in line by the artist Charles Dana Gibson, first appearing in 1887 on the pages of Life Magazine. She proved so popular that many major magazines clamored for these illustrations and they wound up printed on all sorts of objects, making Gibson the highest paid illustrator of his day. The first postcard picturing a Gibson Girl appeared in 1903, and a large set of these would be issued by the Detroit Publishing Company. The Gibson Girl represented a dramatic shift from other depictions of women at this time. Although Gibson himself did not appear to be a proponent of womanís rights, the satiric edge of his work created an image of the New American Woman who was self-confident, sexualized, and her own person. These pictures, which seem tame today were then very subversive, for the roles woman played had been traditionally limited to those chosen for them, and here the Gibson Girl was presented as an equal to men with no limits. While her physical attractiveness made her appealing to many men reaching pinup status, the Gibson Girl may have had a larger appeal among young woman who were not only inspired by her looks but by her independence. Despite being viewed as an icon, the behaviors she expressed were not found desirable in real women of this period. Even though the Gibson Girl began to fade from the public eye around 1910 along with many bourgeois values, many of her characteristics were appropriated by progressive women.

Giveaway Card
A postcard that is free for the taking. Mostly published for hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other roadside businesses, with a picture of that establishment on it. Sometimes local scenery was offered as well as free postage. These cards provided advertising for the issuing business.

Glamour Card
A postcard depicting a beautiful woman. These cards could be artist drawn or real photos but the focus of attention was on the woman as a glamourous object and not as personality. They were portraits of a type rather than an individual, and rarely contained any pictorial narrative unless presented in an environment populated by high society. Most glamour cards were printed in Europe.

Glosso
A trade name used by Raphael Tuck & Sons for a type of flatly covered postcards coated with a thick gelatin to create a glossy surface. Many of these cards have yellowed and cracked over time.

G.m.b.H.
An abbreviation for Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung. This was a early form of a limited liability corporation that originated in Germany in 1892 and was later adopted by other central European nations. These innovative companies required large amounts of founding capital and had many legal restrictions amidst fears that their structure was open to abuse. Many postcard publishers operated as this type of company with the letters G.m.b.H. following the publisher’s name.

Golden Age
A golden age is period within any field of human activity where it flourishes and outstanding accomplishments are achieved. The origin of the term stems from the mythology of Greek and Roman poets in their references to an early age of man, where mankind was pure, happy, and immortal.

The Golden Age of Post Cards
The time period in which postcards were printed in their greatest numbers, with their greatest quality, and were the most collected. There is difficulty in assigning specific years to this Golden Age as postcards followed different histories in different countries, and certain types of cards had varying influences that affected their production and popularity. There is however a set of core years when all the positive factors overlap as in the United States. Here the Golden Age is best defined between the years 1905 when production dramatically rose, to 1911 just before prices collapsed.

Goldtone
A type of photograph whose final image rests on a glass plate with a painted back (See Orotone). This is not to be confused with the gold toning of photo paper (See Toning).

Gramophone Post Card
See Talking Postcard

Gravure (from the French, to engrave)
An intaglio printing method in which an image is transferred to a metal plate by photochemical means. Gravure creates images with a continuous tone similar to that of a photograph, with a density of pigment. The traditional gravure method of printing is called photogravure, which is used for small press runs. This method was adapted to the rotary press after a way to transfer a photograph onto a cylinder was discovered by using gelatin tissue containing a line screen. This type of printing is known as rotogravure.

The Great War
The Great War used to refer to the Napoleonic wars until the outbreak of World War One when it was applied to the fighting in the years between 1914 and 1918. World War One was also referred to as the war to end all wars. When the World War Two broke out both terms fell out of use. Today the term World War One is falling out of favor by those historians who see 1914-1945 as one period.

The Great White Fleet
The 16 newly built battleships of the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic Fleet that left Hampton Roads on December 16th, 1907 for a 43,000 mile voyage around the world by order of President Theodore Roosevelt. They were to be a demonstration of American might in an age of conflicting territorial ambitions. They returned to Virginia in February of 1909. The ships were painted white with golden scrollwork, and a red white & blue banner across their bows. They became the subject of many postcards of the period that were published not only in the United States but by the contries they visited.

Gruss Aus (Gruss Von)
German for Greetings from. This phrase combined with a location’s name found on decorative vignette view-cards are considered to be Gruss aus cards. They were largely produced as chromolithographs between 1894 and 1900 in Germany, Bavaria, Saxony, Austria, and Switzerland, though scenes can be found of a number of non-Germanic Countries as well. While the term Gruss aus was commonly found on cards until about 1910, only those postcards with vignetted graphics are considered to be true Gruss aus cards. It is their graphic style that constitutes a discernible genre.

Gum Arabic (Gum Acacia)
A natural gum produced by the acacia tree of the sub-Sahara to heal its bark if damaged. Gum Arabic is harvested for use in candy, cosmetics, polish, syrups, and as glue. This gum is also employed in lithography, photography, and witchcraft among other things.

Gum Printing (Gum Process)
A primitive method of creating a photograph by applying an emulsion of gum Arabic, photosensitized with potassium dichromate to paper, then exposing it to a negative and developing it out. The Scott, Mungo Ponton developed this process in 1839. Gum printing would later be elaborated on to create the carbon print.