Quoted from the New York State Library 

Picture postcards in the United States began with the souvenir issues sold at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The hobby of postcard collecting began soon after and continued unabated until the First World War. With that event, the postcard album, a book second in importance only to the family Bible, suddenly vanished from the parlor.

The Columbian Exposition cards proved to be so successful, that publishers in other parts of the country were emboldened to issue views featuring large cities, historic landmarks, and popular vacation resorts. Like the exposition cards, these were also well received, despite the fact that the federal government subjected them to the full-letter postage rate of two cents (government issued postals could be mailed at one cent). Public demand to use privately printed postcards became so great by 1898, however, that Congress granted a concession and lowered the postage rate to a penny. After 1898, the postcard industry was off and running, and so was the hobby.

Postcard collecting had become widespread in Europe by the turn of the century. By 1905 it had reached comparable proportions in the United States. The enormous growth of the postcard craze in this country, within so few years, can be attributed to many factors, among them: a shift in tastes of the American public from sentiment to modern art; the development of a sales and distribution network of jobbers and importers that linked German printers with small town merchants (who wanted to immortalize Main Street on viewcards) and retail outlets, such as drugstores, bookshops, newsstands, and department stores, which strongly promoted the sale of postcards, since they required small amounts of display space and bore a good profit. The initial souvenir cards of vacation resorts and big cities, gradually evolved into diverse lines, which included viewcards, comics, holiday greetings, and advertising issues. This diversity placed postcards within the means and interests of almost everyone.

The decade between 1905-1915 -- the Golden Age of Postcards -- saw postcard collecting reach a zenith in staggering proportions. Literally millions of postcards were printed, imported, sold, and mailed by the tons. Official U.S. Post Office figures for year ending 30 June 1908 revealed that approximately seven hundred million postcards were mailed in this country. By 1913 the total number mailed had increased to over nine hundred million, and by this date, the craze was reportedly on the decline.

During the heyday of the postcard craze people bought them for the simple pleasure of owning them. They preserved the cards carefully in their albums or posted them to friends and relatives, with the expectation of receiving many in return. In essence, postcards served as an inexpensive form of entertainment in almost every American home, like radio and television in later eras. Visitors often viewed with delight the heavily padded postcard album adorning parlors, living rooms, and sun porches. Postcards were so ubiquitous that a person could not visit any sizable town, without seeing them in almost every store window -- either for sale, or for the shear delight of sharing a view. In turn, postcard publishers endeavored not only to sell cards embracing a variety of subjects, but also tried to provide for the public a postcard of charm and originality, often superbly colored and even embossed.

At first postal regulations permitted only the name and address of the recipient on the back, so by necessity, messages defaced the illustrated side. In 1907, however, the Post Office Department relented: the back of the postcard could be split down the middle to provide space for both correspondence and address. This epochal decision saved the picture, unless, of course, someone chose to mark an "x" over a hotel window or whatever. Anyhow, the additional message space enhanced the use of postcards for communication at a time when people traveled less frequently, telephones were few, and the postal system was quite efficient. Greetings were often posted December 24 for Christmas and January 1 for New Years. Cards were frequently mailed ahead to announce a family visit or sent as an invitation to friends for parties. Much of the news conveyed was trivial and mundane, the exact sort of detail that makes up day-to-day life of humanity today. Progress or decline in the state of health of relatives was meticulously chronicled; cards were sent to convey news of death and birth as well. A general populace is evident from the number of inscriptions about purchases at the store, church activities, one's employment, and the place where one resides. In other words, to the general public postcards provided a convenient way to keep in touch with friends and relatives, without the burden of descriptive writing. The postcard industry promoted this point as much as literary critics decried it. To some the fine art of letter-writing appeared threatened with extinction.

Indeed, picture postcards were more than just a means of communication; for they provided a portrait of life in America during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Postcards were produced for every occasion. At a time when newspapers carried few if any photographs, especially in small towns, the postcard offered an incredibly inexpensive and convenient way to capture people, places, and events. Whenever America paraded or celebrated anything, the postcard photographer was there. He was also there when disasters occurred, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, and train wrecks. The political climate and figures of the time were also recorded, as were the prohibition and suffrage movements. Furthermore, the postcard reflected the attitudes, pastimes, sentiments, and tastes of the American people. They advertised the products available to the consumer and featured the current vogue in fashions. Heroes and celebrities of all kinds were portrayed on postcards, as was home, mother and the Flag. They also covered love and courtship, humor, racial attitudes, sports, and sexy girls. This does not even begin to speak of the almost infinite number of viewcards depicting America's main streets, civil buildings, schools, churches, businesses, factories, trolleys, railroads, amusement parks, lakes, rivers, mountains, and cemeteries.

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