1848-1872 1873-1897 1898-1913 1914-1945 1946-1990 1991-2008
Golden Age of the Post Card
1898-1913 page 2
page 1
THE GOLDEN AGE OF POST CARDS
An accumulation of factors led to an explosion in the popularity of postcards during these years, especially after 1905. The American middle class had grown in size, and the excess money it had to spend on nonessential goods was enough to support a large industry. Advertisements promoted postcards as an alternative way to stay in touch with friends and family without the need of lengthy letter writing. But postcards could now be purchased to collect, not just correspond. This is evident in the large number uncanceled cards of the period and the many other collecting manias that visited this time. Many families kept a post card album in their parlor, where it became the centerpiece of social gatherings. Postcard collecting clubs developed like the Jolly Jokers that had more than 2300 members, the Society for the Promulgation of Post Cards with 5,000 members, and the Post Card Union with and astounding 10,000 members. Those who couldn’t fathom the changing times referred to these clubs as cults.
Photography and printing technology had also advanced to a point that enabled high quality images to be produced in tremendous numbers and they were. Card dealers began to outnumber booksellers. Over 7 billion postcards were mailed worldwide in 1905, almost one billion in the United States alone; and this does not account for those that ended up in collections rather than the mailbox. Some have speculated that perhaps up to 50 percent of all postcards produced were collected.
Postcards also provided a snapshot of the world in an age when the public had little access to pictures. In the 1890’s no more than 30 percent of all advertising contained illustrations. This absence of imagery was not so much a lack of appetite as an inability to obtain. The desire for imagery seems to be a natural human trait that cannot be completely explained by reason. Only the ability to produce and procure need be added to the mix. A new distribution system for postcards played a major roll in their popularity. Photographers representing printers would cross the country capturing views of many places, both obscure and well known. They then made deals to sell local view cards at local stores. German print houses set up offices in large American cities to help process orders. Anyone could send in a photograph for a mail-order postcard contract. Many postcard outlets such as pharmacies, stationaires, and five & dimes suddenly became publishers. This allowed nearly every small town resident to find a card representing their community, something that is no longer true today.
COMPETITIONS
To encourage sales, publishers would sometimes hold competitions. No one was better at this than Raphael Tuck. Starting in 1899 they offered a large prize to the person who could collect the most Tuck cards within a two-year period. Duplicates were permitted as long as they were mailed from different locations. An English woman took the prize the first year with a collection of more than twenty thousand cards. By 1906 Tuck was offering prizes for the best alternative uses for postcards. All sorts of household products and furniture were decorated by pasting cards to them.
ART CARDS
Though printed throughout the postcard craze, these cards were meant to be looked upon as works of art to be collected rather than for correspondence. They demanded higher prices than ordinary view-cards, sometimes as high as ten cents, so they would not have been casually thrown into the mail. Many famous paintings were reproduced in exacting hues by employing over twenty printed colors. Strictly speaking these are not art cards but reproductions of famous works of art. However the quality of those obtained through chromolithography or gravure are better than cards of the same subjects printed today. They belong to the tradition of art prints popularized in the 19th century as cheap alternatives to oil paintings. Unfortunately too many of the original objects and paintings depicted on these cards have since been lost to war.
Not all cards depicting artworks were made as high quality cards. These were often of subjects not found in museums. Murals from public buildings and large painted cycloramas depicting historical events for tourists often found their way amongst ordinary view-cards. Other imagery taken from popular culture was reproduced with varying quality.
ARTIST SIGNED CARDS
A different type of art card were those that reproduced illustrations specifically designed for postcards. Those that display the artists signature are known as artist signed cards. The artist’s signature is not actually on the card but on the original work of art that is then reproduced with the signature. Amidst the great volume of anonymous cards, the signature allows specific images to be paired with the artist that created it. This is of interest to many collectors today though the artist’s name seems to have had little significance to those who purchased these cards when they were new. Between 1880 and 1920 both the quality and the demand for illustration was at its height. The distinction between applied art and the fine arts wasn’t as great then as they are now. Leading artists of the day provided many of the pictures found on postcards. Some artists who had become famous for other types of graphic works such as posters readapted their designs to specifically look good in the postcard format. In an age when it was difficult to come by images, many of these cards proved highly influential in providing information as to what other contemporary artists were doing. But most illustrated cards, other than cartoons, preyed on the sentimental, and were infused with emotional overtones when dealing with the popular themes of patriotism, children, and the American West.
Anthropomorphic depictions of animals could already be widely found in illustration when postcards first began to be printed. Although as old as mankind, the inclination to give animals human traits became extremely common in the 19th century with the growth of children’s literature. Animals depicted this way could easily substitute for human stereotypes thus simplifying narratives. For the same reason they became widely used in satire and political cartoons. It did not take long for these types of images to produced in large quantities as artist signed cards and real photos as well. Dressed representations of animals became so ingrained in the publics’ eye that Postmasters sometimes confiscated postcards containing images of animals in their natural state as indecent material.
After the halftone process provided a cheap and easy way to produce pictures, it freed many artists from their reproduction work and they moved on to create original illustrations. The Halftone also increased the desirability of producing pictoral ads. By the beginning of the 20th century this led to vast growth in consumer research and ad-agencies. When flat rate advertising was established in 1914 advertising grew at a phenomenal rate. But as advertising became a large industry, the reputation of illustrators went down in the public’s eye. Design was now being perceived as just another form of marketing and fewer art postcards were produced. With the coming of the Second World War, the work of the last great illustrators of the Golden Age were replaced by comics and photographs.
THE NEW AMERICAN WOMAN
With the growth of the American middle class more women began to receive an education and their desire to step out into the world increased. But it was also a time of expectations outpacing social realities. This resulted in a great public demand for illustrations depicting women. While there was a growing acceptance of female sexuality, its expression was largely repressed in the self-confident but innocent representations of women who would never betray the manners of their bourgeois upbringing. Depictions of women were changing but they were still confined to a number of prescribed roles.
The Gibson Girl represented an exceptional dramatic shift in the traditional portrayal of woman. While her physical attractiveness made her appealing to many men to the point of becoming a pseudo pinup, the Gibson Girl may have had larger appeal among young woman who were not only inspired by her looks but by her subversiveness in expressing sexuality and independence. She was a widely accepted image by a public that generally did not accept the values she expressed.
A differing version of the New Woman could also be found on postcards originating from Europe, though her depictions here were not of a consistent nature. Some of the images created in the newer, more socially progressive nations of Europe such as Germany often depicted sexualized women, while those countries that were struggling to preserve their cultural identity in a fast changing world such as England tended to degrade those portraying rolls outside of traditional norms. Where ever there was a strong denial of female sexuality, those images depicting sexual women were often embraced by progressives as symbols of independence rather than exploitation.
AUTOCHROME 1906
James Clerk Maxwell created the first color photographic image in 1861. It was based on the additive color process where black & white transparencies would be projected through red, green, and blue filters resulting in a natural looking picture. The Lumière brothers patented the autochrome process in 1906 based on the same additive color theory. When a layer of dyed potato starch granules was combined with a panchromatic emulsion, the grain acted as tiny RGB color filters. When processed, the final result was a one of a kind color glass transparency. This remained the only viable commercial source of color photographs until 1935. Autochromes gained much popularity among news photographers during the First World War and many color postcards were made from these images. Numerous other methods of producing color photographs were developed at the turn of the Century in both Europe and America, but they proved to be too difficult or expensive for general use. Although none of these approaches could be directly combined with printing, many autochrome images found their way onto postcards through alternative means.
IMMIGRATION
The influx of immigrants to the United States has always correlated to the famines, wars, political unrest, persecutions, and economic failures in other nations. In the years that postcards grew in popularity so did immigration to America. In 1906 The Bureau of Immigration was founded to help control their numbers. During the Golden Age of the postcard nearly 14 percent of the U.S. population was foreign born. In places like New York, an important entry point, the foreign born made up 26 percent of the State’s population. Even though many cards were produced depicting scenes of immigrants and their communities, it is difficult to judge who they were most marketed towards. These new arrivals became a general subject of pictoral interest to many people here, and at the same time they created a tremendous new market for postcards themselves. While many immigrants did not possess the financial means to collect postcards, they had much need to communicate with scattered family members. As postcards were cheaper to mail than letters, while providing pictures of a new land, they became the popular choice of correspondence.
GRAND HOTELS
The wide open rural nature of our county combined with the absence of good roads made comfortable travel difficult even in the more populated Northeast. It was the centralization of so many people at so few points along rail or steamer lines that made the construction of huge hotels possible. Large hotels in the mountains or at the shore had been an important feature in the American landscape for much of the 19th century. As our populace grew wealthier so did the number of these establishments that catered to them. Even the new middle class began to partake of the type of travel once reserved for the privilaged. Many hotels became publishers and more importantly large distributors of postcards. The high number of visitors their presence attracted allowed nearby businesses to join in on the sale of cards as well. Despite their size many of these large hotels became quickly antiquated with their small rooms, and even luxury suites often lacked plumbing. As vacationers became motorists a wider variety of destinations opened up that increasingly siphoning off hotel attendance. Many were bankrupt by WWI while others later burnt down and were never rebuilt in a harsher economic environment.
Residing at a Grand Hotel was often a matter of confirming one’s social status. An American Queen Anne Style was adopted for many of these structures in the 1880’s to avoid a provincial look. But with the closing of the West at the turn of the century, the American wilderness took on a popular romanticism to an extent previously unseen. Hiking, camping, and hunting passed from a way of life to become recreational activities. The new Grand Hotels captured this spirit in the Arts & Crafts style and by borrowing motifs from Spanish missions to the Swiss chalet. This represented a growing confidence in an American identity while at the same time being part of an effort to define that very identity. The images chosen for postcards were also used to help define this new romantic identity for purposes of commercial self promotion. While this Country’s Spanish and Native American heritage was incorporated into the Nation’s identity far beyound hotel design and the postcards they sold, members of those the communities remained unwanted and largely hidden except as occasional elements of local color. A Grand Hotel not only often provided a rich exotic environment, but insurance against having to mingle with members of another class or race.
BUNGALOWS
The first bungalow in the United States was designed by William Gibbons and built at Monument Beach on Cape Cod in 1879. While larger than what became the typical Craftsman Style bungalow with a low profile and central living space, it was still symbolic of the country getaway. The original bungalows or bengla were the traditional houses of the Bengal Province of India often used as summer retreats by British officials. The style brought back to the West became popular in America just as the postcard craze began to boom. Generally inexpensive, they provided many with a second home outside of an urban environment and were predominantly found near the shore. Their wide verandas with sheltering overhangs provided a comfortable outdoor space. This was an important feature to many in an age when Tuberculosis was rampant and fresh air thought a cure. As automobiles became more prevalent it freed those wishing to escape the city from dependence on resort hotels, and more and more bungalows began dotting the landscape. These homes and the surrounding environment they were built in became an important new focal point for postcards. Areas that were previously neglected in imagery were now being focused upon by publishers eager to attract the attention of summer people spreading out across the land.
SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE 1906
One of this Nation’s greatest natural disasters was the earthquake that hit San Francisco on April 18th, 1906 and the subsequent four days of fire that leveled half the city. News of the event spread far and wide and the world became hungry for pictures. Many photographers rushed to San Francisco supplementing those who already had studios there. The fire, rubble, refugees, and cleanup were all carefully captured in the ensuing hours, days, and weeks. Postcard publishers were the primary disseminator of news images at this time as newspapers carried few if any pictures. Though San Francisco had a number of important card publishers, there facilities were damaged in the quake and it took some time for them to begin printing again. This hardly mattered as the public’s desire for imagery did not quickly fade. Other publishers from around the Country who had never produce a single view of California were now publishing cards of the City in ruins. Some postcards depicting this disaster were poorly printed; no doubt due to the rush to provide images in an environment that now lacked quality printing houses. The City was largely rebuilt within ten years but fewer cards depicted its reconstruction as San Francisco was still too closely intwined with the earthquake in the public psyche.
In the short term the San Francisco Earthquake was a boon to publishers who produced postcards of the quake. But this disaster also set off a chain of events that would eventually come back to hurt the publishing industry. At the time of the quake the U.S. economy was growing at its fastest rate with much capital available for would be publishers. As more and better cards were created the public’s interest in them also continued to increase and in no time postcard sales were booming. In 1906 San Francisco was the center of Pacific trade and the heart of our Western economy. The loss of this wealthy city along with its important mint triggered an immediate sell off on the New York and London stock markets, which dropped about 12 percent in value. Insurance companies that could made record pay outs, others simply ran out of money. International relief funds and gold reserves would begin heading west just as extra credit was needed to help bring in a bumper harvest. Together a spiraling shortage of credit was created increasing public anxiety.
PUBLISHING
During the 1890’s and soon after the turn of the century a number of businessmen entered into postcard publishing who would grow to become leaders in this field. The Albertype Company, Curt Teich, Detroit Publishing, Illustrated Post Card, Hugh C. Leighton, Edward H. Mitchell, and the Rotograph Company are but a handful that were in business during these years. Though they may have produced a variety of items the main output and focus of their enterprise was postcards and these publishers created the bulk of cards that found their way into the market. But as postcard collecting grew into a craze many others saw the possibilities of making a good profit. While this inspired many small speculators to become publishers, many large well established companies began to see the possibilities in producing cards as well. This can best be seen amongst the firms that already had some connection to the printing industry such as fine art and book publishers; and the images on their cards were often the same as those that appeared on the pages of their books. Newspapers, with their access to images and printing facilities also began turning out postcards. Though many of these publishers were much larger than those who produced cards alone, their total output of postcards was usually far less for it was only a sideline for them. As the economy began to falter many of these large publishing houses left the postcard business as fast as they entered it and went back to what they knew best.
Not all large companies that began publishing postcards as a sideline were tied to the printing industry. The most obvious of these are the railroad and steamship companies that stood much to gain in advertising, promotion, and consumer relations by producing large amounts of postcards. Businesses such as insurance companies that needed to reach out to the public found postcards a handy medium to work with. Others such as five & dimes could also become large publishers of postcards for many had a very wide distribution system already in place through their many chain stores.
POST CARD (Divided Back) 1907 - Present
Great Britain was the first Country to issue divided back postcards in 1902 followed by France in 1904 and Germany in 1905. This quickly led to a sharp increase in card sales. To keep in step with Europe the United States released new postal regulations on March 1, 1907 that divided the back of postcards in half, the left side for a message, the right for postage and address. This date is often referred to as the birth of the modern postcard for it created the same format that we use today. On some of the earliest cards of this period the dividing line is left of center often accompanied by printed instructions of what could be written and where. The most obvious affect of this new measure is that it allowed an image to take up the entire front of a card, though some publishers maintained a small border tab for a few remaining years. Older cards also continued to be used, often with a hand drawn line down the middle. The advantage to contemporary collectors is that most people of the period stopped writing messages across the card’s image.
Because halftone and gravure printing form images though the accumulation of many small markings, text printed in this manner tends to look fuzzy. To solve this problem the text on most cards were printed in letterset during a second printing after that of the image. But as cards started assuming the form of full bleeds many began printing their titles on their backs where single colored solid tones were suitable. This new available space led to ever increasing amounts of narrative being added alongside the title. Although short narratives have found their way onto the backs of postcards since private mailing cards, this form became more common in the 1930’s and is still prevalent today.
Most early real photo postcards were made through contact printing because the gaslight papers they used were too slow for the enlarging process. Since contact printing did not utilize photo eisels, commercially made masks were available in different forms to create a white writing tab or decorative border on the photo’ surface. Amateurs rarely would spend money for these commercial products improvising their own. This method was not only cumbersome, it meant loosing part of the image, and few went through this trouble. After the divided back postcard was authorized in 1907 real photos became more popular for there was now a place to write a message other than on the photograph itself.
THE PANIC OF 1907
The production of postcards was not just greatly expanding due to ever increasing public demand for them, the publishing business was riding a general economic boom that extended across all sectors of the economy since the end of the Spanish American War. The optimism and greed of this time translated into the growth and formation of a vast amount of new companies, often propped up by unwise extensions of credit. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 inspired publishers throughout the Country to create cards depicting the destruction to fill the hunger for imagery. But the disaster that hit this wealthy city also initiated a liquidity crunch that eventually spread throughout the world. As the massive amount of capital needed to fuel this growing economy began to dwindle, investors became nervous, which only added to this downward spiral. By October of 1907 fear had grown into a panic and there would be runs on the banks in New York. A month later the market crashed devaluating stocks by 37 percent. Banks would fail, municipal bonds would go unsold, and a scarcity of money prevented economic expansion. While this recession only lasted for about fifteen months it stopped many new publishers from entering the postcard business and others began to disappear. Postcards would continue to be produced in great numbers but the market for them was loosing some of its strength.
THE GREAT WHITE FLEET
Sixteen newly built battleships of the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic Fleet left Virginia in 1907 on a 43,000 mile, two year voyage around the world by order of President Theodore Roosevelt. They were to make a demonstration of American might in an age of conflicting territorial ambitions. The existence of navies had grown in importance with the expanding imperialism of European nations. With the easy defeat of the Spanish Fleet in Manilla Bay at the hands of the Americans in 1898, and the destruction of the outgunned Russian Fleet by the Japanese in 1905, the need for modernization became imperative to all. These wars and the sudden race to construct larger and better armed ships inspired great public interest in warships, and nearly every craft afloat found its way onto a postcard. As the Great White Fleet sailed around the world many postcards were published of its ships and ports of call both in this Country and by the Nations it visited. The introduction of naval subjects into card production attracted many men to postcard collecting, a hobby that had been dominated by women.
Ships have carried United States mail since 1845, and between 1897 and 1937 mail arriving from overseas was transferred to small mail boats when the ships stopped for inspection at quarantine stations. But all this mail was then carted off to a post office for processing. An act of Congress of May 27th, 1908 authorized the U.S. Navy to establish post offices aboard their vessels so seamen would always have a reliable method of sending mail home. A month latter the battleship U.S.S. Illinois joined the Great White Fleet with the first navel post office capable of canceling letters and postcards. These cancels carry the name of the United States Ship they originated from on them. Most postcards with ship cancels are dated between 1908 and 1914. The ability of seamen to have access to a post office not only expanded the use of postcards but increased the demand for naval subjects.
POST CARD RACK 1908
As the publics desire for postcards grew, the businesses supporting this demand grew along side them. Decorative storage boxes, and albums of all kinds flooded the market. Many clever devices were also made for the display of postcards. The most enduring has been the revolving metal card rack, invented by E. I. Dail in 1908. It allowed self-service of merchandise while taking up less space than conventional wall racks. Dail sold 5,000 racks in the first nine months of production. A rival was introduced from Europe in 1911 in the form of a card vending machine. But with all of the newer innovations that have come to pass, it is the simple basic design of the postcard rack that has endured.
TINSELING (Glitter)
In ever increasing attempts to sell more postcards, methods of adding metallic fragments or mica to its surface were introduced to catch the buyer’s eye. In this process metallic powder is dusted over glue printed onto a cards surface after the image has dried. Silver was traditionally used, but as it grew too expensive cheaper substitutes were found in a variety of colors and textures. Unlike the fine powders used in bronzing that lied flat on the card’s surface, this method produced raised and rough sparkling lines. Publishers would sometimes add tinseling to stocks of slow selling or monochrome cards in the hope of increasing sales. Kits with glue pens were eventually marketed to the public that allowed tinsel to be added to postcards at home. The Post Office Department considered these cards hazardous and required that they be mailed in an envelope. It reached the point where twenty thousand tinseled cards a day were sent to the Dead Letter Office for want of a cover. Tinseling is still widely used on folded greeting cards.
NOVELTIES
To gain an edge on competition, publishers designed postcards outside of the expected norms. Their roots are in the advertising cards of the 1890’s where many of these innovations began. Some used flexography to print on unusual substances such as wood or leather; others were die cut into strange shapes or puzzles. Images of volcanoes were charred on the edges while others were adorned with delicate embroideries of silk. Windows were colored with metallic paints while others were cutout and filled with transparencies. Many had moveable parts (mechanicals). Objects like coins, feathers, or real hair were pasted on, and some began to make sounds. Many of these cards were so delicate they were mailed in envelopes for protection. As postcard sales started to decline many more novelty cards were issued in more wildly elaborate forms in an attempt to attract attention and renew the public’s interest. Novelty cards exist today but they are rarely as creative.
VARIATIONS
Postcards were usually printed in quantities of 500-8000 at a time. For large contracts the printer might hold cards in storage for the publisher, sending them out in lots bit by bit as requested but this was rare. Some cards were always more popular than others requiring reprinting a multiple of times. Every time this was done new plates were created which could be close to far in duplicating the original image; it was never the same. The most common differences to be found are in sky and coloration. The sky’s appearance on most cards was derived from an artist’s imagination by necessity. Between poor exposure latitude and the inability of most film to capture anything more than blue light, the sky in photographs was often washed out to white. When an image was remade there was nothing on the negative to refer to, so clouds were drawn in differently each time. Very often it’s the clouds that create the greatest distinction between printers, since they are derived from the stylistic temperament of the company’s artists rather than static negatives. With rare exception the negatives or photos used to print color cards were also in black and white. The customer would sometimes request specific colors, but most often they were just made up by the retouchers or their manager. Again this was rarely ever duplicated and can vary wildly between reprinting.
There are other factors that created variations in postcards as well. After postal regulations allowed for divided back cards, many early cards printed with a front writing tab were reissued as full frontal bleeds. Cars and people were sometimes removed or changed to match fashions currently in style. The images taken from large negatives needed to be cropped, and when reprinted they were often cropped differently. Sometimes the negative was just taken to a new printer that used a different method of production. Of course some variations were printed on purpose. It was an easy way to give an old image a new look and perhaps find new customers. Because it was difficult to photograph in low light many night scenes on cards used the same negative as the midday version; they were only printed in darker colors with a moon added for effect. In later years, publishers reprinted old negatives to save money. Others printed variations in an attempt to disguise stolen images protected by copyright laws. This can all be confusing when dating a card. The card’s printing date and the image photographed for it could be decades apart.
ERRORS
With millions of different images being produced it was inevitable that printing mistakes would be made. The most common error to be found is in spelling, which can be carried further to include grammar. While these errors could occur anywhere, having text in English set by German printers led to more confusion than usual. Sometimes whole titles were misprinted and they would be struck through and reprinted. Strikes were also used to change place names on cards. While this is necessary to get more life out of cards from places that changed their names, it was sometimes used to purposely reset the scene depicted on a card to a more sellable location. Errors were not limited only to text as imagery can be erroneously altered during retouching. Parts of objects or scenery were sometimes accidentally removed and not replaced while separating colors by hand. It was not uncommon for flaws or vague features in a negative to be misinterpreted by the retoucher into something wrongfully concrete. Low lying clouds can turn into a mountain range or distant islands on the horizon. It was a common practice to add cars and boats into scenes by transferring preprinted decals to the drawing surface. They were often not accurately fit into the space leaving them noticeably out of scale with the rest of the image. Postage stamps with these types of mistakes usually fetch high prices because their strict quality control makes them rare. Postcards with errors on them were usually all put out on the market. These cards may be collected as curiosities, but they are not very rare and do not tend to demand higher prices. Very often errors make these cards even less desirable.
GENERICS
It is difficult to determine when the first generic postcard was made but it is safe to say they have been around a long time. Probably the most common use of these cards has been in wartime. They allowed many sought after views of military camps, fortifications, and equipment to be illustrated without giving away any crucial information as to their location. When the local was specified it was usually only to increase sales at a given post that it did not really depict. Generics were also widely used at amusement areas and beaches where demand for cards were high and tell tale features were low. It was much less expensive to reprint a caption on a card than to send a photographer out to capture an actual scene. Many Greetings From cards did not even attempt to hide their generic nature. Scenes depicting high inland mountain ranges were sold at Atlantic beach resorts with seemingly mismatched titles. With some cards it is hard to tell if they are generic or not. Wood lined roads with no discernible features are often labeled as the Lover’s Lane of a particular town, but there is never any way to truly know. The only thing for certain is that the images on generic postcards come from somewhere.
As much as it may seem that every small town had a publisher who produced postcards, there were plenty of places that lacked the population or visitors to make card production profitable. This problem was solved with the introduction of stock cards. These cards would be produced in a normal press run, but their imagery would be generic in nature and they would contain no text. Small local printers who had the capacity to print place names onto them with small hand presses could then purchase stock cards for their clientele. This allowed stores or even individuals to order cards of their hometown in numbers less than required by an expensive press run. Another type of stock card was the pennant card. These contained little or no imagery at all. Instead a place name would be printed onto a piece of felt, cut into the shape of a pennant, and then glued to the card. This practice eventually took on various forms. Although blank stock cards were printed in number, the nature of the hand press makes it impossible to determine the quantity of finished cards printed for any one location.
PAYNE-ALDRICH ACT OF 1909
Many had thought postcards would just be a passing fad but with every passing year the demand just grew greater. As postcard sales approached nearly a billion a year many came to believe it was only the beginning of continuing growth for the industry. To gain an edge on foreign competition American printers petitioned for price protection and in 1909 The Payne-Aldrich Tariff was imposed on postcards. This extra cost nearly eliminated the imports that supplied the bulk of our inventory. Only the best quality imported cards still found customers willing to pay a higher price. American printers, who boasted, we can make it here, soon found themselves unable to produce enough cards of the same quality to fill the gap. Alien contract laws prohibited German printers from bringing their skills here.
As stores and jobbers paniced they began stocking up on as many cards as they could before the tariff took effect. This glut in supply wound up severely depressing the price. Instead of protecting their market, it was now in a downward spiral as the public’s interest in cards waned. In 1912 the industry made attempts to stabilize price-cutting practices as postcards were dumped on the market at five cents a dozen, an all time low. They accomplished little as other factors continued to drive down demand forcing 25 percent of publishers out of business. The following year the French-fold greeting card was introduced which was an immediate success. Postcard racks were emptied to make room for this hot seller. The Post Office Department added to the publishers woes as they initiated a new crackdown on risqué images by allowing individual postmasters to confiscate cards they deemed unfit to be mailed. Post cards depicting lynching were also officially prohibited, though not the act itself.
Same day mail delivery had allowed quick messages to be sent via postcard, but the ever expanding use of the telephone was cutting down on its usefulness. Movie theaters were now open in most towns, siphoning off more collectors who found this animated media more entertaining. What was once the largest collecting craze to seize the world was nearing its end.
GREETINGS
While postcards depicted the scenery of many spots throughout the world, there were other cards where no location was indicated. If they were titled at all it was usually in some poetic fashion. While most were artist drawn and signed they are not art reproductions for they were usually created by lesser known illustrators for the specific purpose of being placed on postcards. These cards are not to be confused with generics for they were never meant to pose for actual places. They were designed to be attractive to the general public incorporating pleasant colors and romanticized subjects. The formulas that guided their creation did not lead to great art but were a very successful for mass marketing. While their lack of specificity and artistic depth makes most of them less desirable today, they were the most popular postcards of their time. They were not sold as souvenirs but for quick notes and as greeting cards.
In 1913 the publishers of greetings introduced a new type of folding card that was printed on paper instead of card stock. They were French folded by machine to give them added substance and they would be mailed in an envelope. This novelty quickly became a popular fad and postcards that were diminishing in the public eye were removed from store racks and replaced with these folded greetings. They tended to be artist drawn and carried the same type of anonymous sentimental subjects that had made similar postcard greetings so popular.
Folded greeting cards eventually grew more complex. They took on the qualities of early novelty postcards being designed in die-cut shapes, with embossing, and added paper lace. Since they were to be mailed in envelopes they no longer had to comply with postal regulations that guided postcard use, and they began to appear in many shapes and sizes. These new types of cards would soon replace the postcard when sent as a greeting or holiday card. In later years as publishers looked for ways of saving money the french fold would be abandoned for the now common double folding card.
