Last delivery for a mail icon? by Roderick Eime

collecting postcards really began. Many families displayed postcard albums alongside the family album at home. This fertile era is often referred to as the ‘‘golden age’’. Postcards were, by then, an accepted, even expected means of documenting significant events and locations. Traders used them for advertising, governments used them for propaganda and travellers used them to send greetings

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when shapes, forms and sizes were evolving. Most cards issued at that time had one side devoted to the image and message, with the other to the address and stamp. Instructions such as ‘‘write address here’’ were also common. After the turn of the century, the term ‘‘post card’’ was officially coined to describe privately printed cards for postal use, and it was about this time that

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boost in 1889, when Eiffel Tower cards were mailed in their thousands by awestruck visitors to the Paris Expo that same year. The popularity of that single issue card secured the future of the postcard in the form we now know today. Consequently, World’s Fair postcards from the era are now among the most highly prized items for collectors. Deltiologists refer to the 1890s as the ‘‘pioneer era’’ of postcards,

home from abroad. Disasters such as the Titanic and World Trade Centre brought on minor postcard frenzies. Two days after September 11, you struggled to buy a WTC postcard anywhere. Public taste, economic constraints, government regulation and technological limitations all guided the evolution of the postcard through the first half of the 20th century. The ‘‘divided back’’, ‘‘white border’’ and ‘‘linen’’ eras came and went, leaving us with its most enduring form, the ‘‘photochrome’’, or shiny colour card, which first appeared in Union Oil Company service stations in 1939 and further expanded after World War II. Ironically, with the advent of the Internet, postcard collectors are now able to seek each other out and swap, trade and exchange to their heart’s content. Rather than a drawn-out lengthy wait, collectors can now make contact and initiate a trade within minutes instead of weeks. Hopefully, collectors and traders have successfully harnessed this potentially destructive medium to further their ancient art of paper communication.

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Noteworthy: Postcards not only exchanged greetings across the globe but chronicled major historical events as well

AS with stamps, coins and banknotes, distinct terminology and jargon developed to describe various aspects of deltiology. Here are some common terms: View card: Any depicting a town, city or scene. Cards with more than one picture are called ‘‘multiviews’’. Rack cards or free cards: Advertising giveaways common in cafe´s and hotel lobbies. Oilette: A card made to look like a painting, with discernible brushstrokes. Oversize: Also called ‘‘continental’’ — any card larger than the standard. Mechanical: A card with moving parts Foxing: Brown, hard-to-remove blemishes, usually mildew. Die cut: A card cut to a unique shape, such as Santa or a car. Linen: A fabric-style treatment often used to disguise cheap paper.

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THE humble postcard has long been a staple medium of personal communication for the traveller and adventurer wanting to send greetings home. Postcard collectors, knowing and unknowing, are outnumbered only by stamp collectors worldwide, making it an enormously popular hobby. But today, in an age of instant gratification, will the quaint, stamped, DNA-impregnated and illustrated note be superseded by email, with its horrific vernacular and lazy vulgarity? I would argue that the email serves only to remind us that the act of sending a postcard requires a concerted personal effort and reflects the consideration the sender holds for the recipient. After all, an email can never replace that unique tactile connection a postcard can deliver. Since the birth of the modern postcard in the mid-19th century, countless millions of these quaint paper communique´ s have been sent around the world. Documenting not only travels and adventures, they were used extensively by the armed forces to send notes of reassurance and encouragement to loved ones back home. Quite apart from the personal, often touching messages, an extensive postcard collection is something of a microcosm of world history and culture. The study of postcards is known as deltiology. Historically, there exists some debate about just who was first. Printed message cards began appearing in the early 1860s when John P. Charlton of Philadelphia initiated a patent, which was subsequently picked up by a Mr H.L Lipman. About the same time, a German, Heinrich von Stephen and an Austrian, Emmanuel Hermann, both hit upon the idea for a pre-printed correspondence card. The ‘‘Poor Man’s Telegram’’ was born, and thousands were printed and used worldwide almost immediately. Postcards, in a variety of preprinted forms, with and without illustrations, were now becoming common, particularly in Europe and the USA. The illustrated souvenir card received its most significant

Postcard speak

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The postcard is struggling to survive technology. Roderick Eime reflects on its golden era.

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Last delivery for a mail icon?

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