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
Lantern Slide
See Magic Lantern
Les Nouveaux Distributeurs
An early type of postcard vending machine manufactured in France. A customer could view up to 500 different cards one at a time through a glass window. When money was put in and a crank turned a postcard would be dispensed. These machines were brought to the United States but they never became very popular, most likely due to cost.
Large Letter Card
A postcard in which a place name in large letters becomes its subject. The name is usually that of a State but many cities and popular tourist spots also had their own cards. They were always accompanied by graphic work that could be simple to complex in design. Large letter cards were most popular when produced as linens between 1938 and 1942, but they are based on earlier multi-image view-cards with complicated borders dating back to at least 1902. Their designs grew more complex through the 1940’s but they slowly went out of fashion and largely died out with the linen postcard. Variations of this style still continue to be made.
Letterpress
A relief process where the printing surface of type is raised above the non-image surface. It is a direct printing method where the inked form presses the image directly into the paper creating a slight embossing. Letterpress is one of the oldest printing methods and was the most widely used to print text until it was replaced by offset lithography in the 1960’s. A variant of this process called flexography is still used for printing on non-porous and unusual surfaces.
Levygraph
A photo engraving process patented by Max Levy in Baltimore in 1875.
Library Card
A term for the one cent John Adams postal card (Scott UX15). Libraries became large customers of government issued postal ever since their inception in 1873. Postals proved to be a cheap method to carry out the many different forms of correspondence that these institutions required. Unfortunately standard size postal cards did not fit into standard sized library index files. Libraries often purchased these cards in uncut sheets and then trimmed them down to suit their needs. Melvil Dewey lobbied the United States Post Office Department until they issued this smaller card in 1898.
Lichtdruck
The perfected version of the collotype, dating from 1865, used by its inventor Josef Albert and J. Obernetter in Munich, Germany. This type of fine photo reproduction could be used with the traditional glass plate or on a litho-stone (lichtdruckanstalt) for a larger press run. The process remained in use until 1900.
Lifesaving Service
In 1871 the informal volunteer lifesaving system was reformed into the U.S. Life Saving Service. The number of lifesaving stations was slowly extended from covering the New England coast to the entire Country. Lifesaving stations were built with lookout towers and had six man crews assigned to them. They were equipped with surf boats and Lyle guns that could shoot a cable 600 yards to a ship in distress and carry passengers off with a life car or breeches buoy. There were also lifeboat stations positioned in cities, especially around the Great Lakes. In some southern states houses of refuge with a single keeper were set up to provide shelter for the shipwrecked. In 1915 the Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service combined to form the U.S. Coast Guard. Many postcards were made depicting the stations and their surfmen in practice or in action.
Lightburn
An area of an image that has been noticeably bleached lighter by sunlight than surrounding areas that may have been covered. Sometimes found on paper items that have been matted or placed under mounting tabs. Not to be confused with acid migration, which can yellow or darken a paper’s surface.
Lightfast
The resistance of a color to fade when exposed to light, especially sunlight. The ultra-violet end of the electromagnetic spectrum provides high energy that reacts with the compounds that make up colorants causing them to decompose. This may cause them to change color, usually darken, or to fade or bleach out completely. Since dyes are made up of smaller chemical molecules than pigments, it takes less time for them to break down, making them more prone to fading. A color that fades rapidly is called fugitive.
Lignin
A complex polymer found in plant cells. Lignin makes up about 25 to 30 percent of the volume of wood. Its molecular structure is very unusual and complex making it difficult to separate from cellulose in wood pulp. While chemical processing and bleaching of pulp can remove most of the lignin, mechanical pulp retains high quantities of it. As the sulfur in lignin acidifies over time it will destroy any paper it is carried in by turning it yellow and brittle. Certain insects also like to feed on lignin.
Limited Edition
A series of identical artworks that are produced from a single master, and display an edition number. The edition number consists of two parts; the number that represents the maximum quantity of pieces to be made that limits the edition, proceeded by a slash and a prefix designating the individual number of that particular piece. An edition number of 1/100 means it is the first piece of a maximum one hundred copies to be made. Works in limited editions usually hold the artists’ signature. The term is used to denote scarcity and in turn value, but many have abused its definition to render it meaningless without further clarification.
Linen Card Stock
A heavy paper stock embossed with a texture that resembles linen fabric. Paper is made by pouring a fibrous pulp onto screens and left to dry. When pulled off it has a rough texture on the top and the pattern of the screen on the bottom. For most commercial use paper is calendered between heavy rollers to flatten it out. When a very smooth surface is desired heat is applied. This is called Hot Press, as opposed to Cold Press papers that leave some natural texture. It is at this point that a roller carrying a design in relief, such as a linen texture, can emboss this pattern into paper or card stock. A linen texture began to be seen on some postcards at the beginning of the 20th century. It was most likely an attempt to simulate the canvas texture of paintings in order to associate those postcards to fine art in the public’s eye. The exact nature of these patterns varied from publisher to publisher. The texture could be obvious or subtle, and either in a tight uniform pattern or irregular. Because the texture creates more surface area to react with the air it speeds the drying time of ink printed on it. For this reason it was chosen to be used with dye based inks in the 1930’s through the 1950’s, which needed to dry fast for an optimal look. Curt Teich of Chicago began to mass produce these cards in 1931 and they soon became known as Linens.
Linens
A reference to postcards that have a linen-like fabric texture embossed into their front surface. The Curt Teich Company of Chicago was the first to use this texture for large scale production in 1931. This texture exposed more surface area to the air speeding up drying time, which allowed more colorful dye based inks to be used on high-speed presses. Linens were often spot printed with light blue ink added to the normal CYMK colors adding to their brilliance. Different printers of linen cards usually had their own individual texture embossed into their paper. There are publishers who produced postcards with a linen texture many years earlier but only cards manufactured after 1931 are called Linens. Printed alongside photochromes for many years, the use of linens ended in the 1959 as chromes became more popular.
Line Screen
A transparent plate holding two sets of parallel lines that can be aligned at different angles. The spaces formed between the lines act as small apertures when exposing a negative through them. This transforms the image into a series of black dots of varying size that produce optical tones.
Linotype
A trade name for a typesetting process in which type to be placed in a letterset form could be cast in lines rather than individual letters. After use these metal lines of type could be melted down and reused. It cut down dramatically on labor costs in typesetting.
Lipman Card
The first private postal legally authorized for use in the United States. The earliest known postmark on a Lipman Card is of October 25, 1870 from Richmond, Indiana. This card carried a pictorial advertisement of an Esterbrook Steel Pen and the name Lipman’s Postal Card. The card was issued by Hymen L. Lipman, an associate of John P. Charlton of Philadelphia who copyrighted America’s first postcard in 1861. The original card consisted of a simple design; a few lines for an address, a stamp box, and the copyright date, all printed in three different color variations. None of these cards were ever used to anyone’s knowledge. While the exact relationship between Charlton and Lipman remain unknown both of these card types are usually referred to as Lipman cards,. Only a few remain in existence.
Lith o Sketch
Trade name used by the Curhan Company of Gloucester for their artist signed cards. They were meant to resemble hand made drawings with washes rather than a photo based image. They often have the appearance of being hand colored though they are completely printed. Some of their reproductions of oil paintings also carry this name.
Litho-Chrome
A trade name for a type of postcard distributed by the American News Company that were printed in continuous tone lithography. Their individual colors are sharp and tend to stand out. They are drawn more toward more solid tones than to texture. Many of these cards were printed with a dominant blue pallet that is sometimes so heavy to render a scene highly un-natural. They were printed in Germany.
Lithochrome
A generic term for a lithograph printed in color. The term lithochrome is often used interchangeably in common usage with chromolithograph.
Lithography
A planographic printing method invented in Prague by Alois Senefelder in 1798 in order to reproduce sheet music. These prints are pulled from a chemically treated flat plane rather than a mechanically reliefed surface. The process begins with the flat surface of a litho-stone polished down to a fine even grain. An image can then either be drawn directly onto the stone, or transferred to it, by using a variety of materials ranging from crayons to washes as long as they contain grease or oils (lipids). The image is then etched into the stone with acid emulsified in gum Arabic. Unlike intaglio printing where the etch creates a surface in relief, here only a chemical reaction takes place in which a salt layer seeps into the stone’s pores around the image. When the image is washed off and the stone dampened, the water is only attracted to the salty layer created by the etch. When rolled with an oil-based ink, the ink coats the stone where the water in the surface pores does not repel it. The stone now holds an image identical to the original and can be transferred by pressure to paper. The wetting and inking process can be repeated over and over to produce multiple images. When the job is finished the stone can be re-polished and drawn on once again. The highest quality prints come from drawings made on polished limestone. Prints can also be pulled from textured sheets of zinc or aluminum. The wider availability of metal plates makes them cheaper to use, but they cannot match the quality of stone printed images. Lithography was the best way to reproduce gradated tones before the use of photo emulsions. This process was largely confined to artists until the mechanized lithography press was brought to the United States in 1868. This method and its various incarnations have dominated the printing of postcards from the chromolithographs of the 19th century to offset printing today.
Litho-Plate (Lithography Plate)
A thin flexible sheet of metal used as a printing plate in lithography. These plates can be made of zinc or aluminum. To be used in lithography their printing surface must be ground into a fine texture that will mimic that of a litho-stone. They are processed and printed in the same manner as a traditional lithograph but they also have the ability to be transferred onto a rotary press cylinder. The ability to print from metal plates is as old as lithography itself, but because metal can never capture the fine tones available from a stone, they were rarely used until the rotary press created an econnomic incentive. When litho-stones became hard to procure during WWI, most printers switched to plates. Litho plates that are used for offset printing are made from a lighter weight steel and are often electronically hardened (anodized) so they can print runs of a half-million.
Litho-Stone (Lithography Stone)
A particular type of limestone used to reproduce images in the lithography process. All the better stones come from the quarries near the town of Solnhofen in the Jura Mountains of Bavaria, the hometown of the inventor of lithography, Alois Senefelder. This particular limestone from the Jurassic-age was considered superior because its fine granularity was capable of capturing subtle gradations, while its purity allowed production of flawless stable images with consistent reactions in processing. Large numbers of these stones were quarried and shipped to American printing houses during the 19th century. A deposit of high quality limestone was discovered in Iowa in 1914 and the town of Lithograph City (now Devonia) grew up around it. Litho-stones are very heavy, especially when compared to other printing materials, because they needed to be of substantial thickness so not to crack under the pressure of the press. As they grow thinner and brittle through successive grindings, they can be mounted on slate to retain thickness and strength. Their difficulty in handling combined with their inaccessibility during WWI caused the industry to largely switch over to metal plates despite the inferior images they produced. The term litho is short for lithography while name lithography is derived from the Greek work lithos, meaning stone.
Lusterchrome
A trade name for photochrome postcards manufactured by the Tichnor Brothers.
Luxochrome
A trade name used by the Noyer photo studio in Paris for their art cards printed in halftone lithography.
Lynching
The general meaning is an execution by a mob. It is most often associated with the ritual murder of Blacks, especially by hanging, to maintain white supremacy through the use of terrorism. It is based on the tradition of Lynch Laws that allowed the administration of justice without resorting to the inefficiencies of the legal system. Between 1882 and 1968, newspapers alone reported on 4743 cases of lynching in the United States. A lynching was usually a festive community activity and real photo postcards were often made as souvenirs. In 1912 Congress ordered the Post Office Department to prohibited the mailing of postcards depicting lynching, while refusing to pass legislation making it a crime.
