The History of Real Photo Postcards

The History of Real Photo Postcards

By

Karen Utter Jennings

Postcards have been around since 1861 and there are several different types. Vintage postcards are highly collected by fans. Those who study and collect postcards, known as deltiologists, are serious about their collections. Libraries, historical and genealogical societies, and other organizations as well as private individuals collect them. Postcards can be purchased from online dealers as well as flea markets and antique stores and from private collections.

                        

For our purposes, we will talk about real photograph postcards or RPs. Around 1900, photography had grown into a popular hobby for many people and the latest craze was sending a postcard with a photograph printed on the back. These are called real photograph postcards; the word “real” was used to explain that the postcard started as a photographic negative. They were reproduced by developing them onto photographic paper the size and weight of postcards with a postcard backing. 

In the beginning, postal service regulations required there be no writing on the address side of the postcards. In 1907, the regulations changed so that the postcards had a dividing line where the address could be written on the right side and a message wrote on the left side. This is called the divided back era.

From about 1915 to 1930, to save ink, most postcards were printed with a white border, also called “White Border Postcards.” After 1930, the new printing processes used colored ink and a high rag substance that gave a linen-like finish to the photographs. This process, called the Linen Era lasted until about 1944.

After 1944, known as the Photochrome Era, real photographic postcards declined and gave way to the postcards that we know today as the tourist-type cards we send while on vacation.

If you own real photo postcards with no way to date them, here is a brief guide to follow. This information does not include everything there is to know about identifying and dating them.  

First, check the price of the stamp in the stamp box on the card. Postal rates steadily rose over the years. The stamp price for mailing cards between 1898 and 1917 was one cent. It rose to two cents from 1917 to 1958. From 1958 to 1962, it cost three cents and from 1963 to 1967 postage rose to four cents. During 1968 to May 1971, the cost rose to a nickel.

If your photo postcard has no stamp attached, check the border around the stamp box on the postcard. If the postcards were produced on Kodak paper, known as “AZO,” they had special borders during special years. From 1904 to 1918, some borders had four triangles pointing up. From 1907 to 1909, the stamp box border had diamonds in the corners. During 1918 to 1930, some borders had two triangles pointing up and two pointing down. During 1922 through 1926, borders might have empty corners. Finally, in 1926 through the 1940s, the stamp box borders had squares in the corners.

Please note that there were other papers used to produce real photo postcards, but I reporting about using the most popular, AZO.

Ancestry.com has a large photograph collection on their website. They offer real photograph postcards of people, hometowns, cities, homes, historical places, and businesses. There are over 200,000 in the collection as of this writing.

If you are interested in learning more about real photograph postcards, there is tons of information on the internet about societies and associations dealing with postcards of all subjects. Dealers are constantly on the hunt for collectibles.

To write this column, I used several interesting internet websites as well as the book,

“Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs,” by Maureen A. Taylor. (Cincinnati, OH: F&W Publications, 2005).