The history of postcards is part of the cultural history of the United States. Especially after 1900, "the postcard was wildly successful both as correspondence and collectible" and thus postcards are valuable sources for cultural historians as both a form of epistolary literature and for the bank of cultural imagery included in the postcard illustrations reflecting historic popular culture norms and tropes. Postcards are also valuable resources for scholars of architectural and regional history.
Postcard eras
There are several common motifs present in American postcard design, most shaped by production practices and laws in place at the time of production. These have been identified by deltiologists and grouped together into what are commonly referred to as eras or periods which describe a postcard's style or method of production. While features of these eras, such as a divided back, are present in other countries as well, the dates of production may differ. For example, "divided back" postcards were introduced to Great Britain in 1902, five years before the United States. The golden age of postcards is commonly defined in the United States as starting around 1905, peaking between 1907 and 1910, and ending by World War I. Listed here are eras of production for specific types of postcards, as typically defined by deltiologists. Most of the dates are not fixed dates, but approximate points in time as there was a lot of overlap in production. These will be further elaborated upon in the following sections.
Pioneer, 1870–1898
Alternate start dates include 1873 (first government postal issued) and 1893 (World's Columbian Exposition) Private Mailing Card‚ 1898–1901 Undivided Back‚ 1901–1907 Occasionally called the "Post Card" era Divided Back‚ 1907–1915 White Border‚ 1915–1930 Linen‚ 1930–1945 Photochrom(e)‚ 1939–present
Others styles of postcards have fairly established dates of production as well. These are not typically referred to as eras, as they were never the predominant type at any given time.
Real Photo‚ 1903–present
Began with the introduction of a Kodak camera in 1903
Leather‚ 1900–1909
References to "leather postals" and "leather post cards" began to appear in newspapers across the United States in late 1904 and were in popular use by Valentine's Day of 1905.
History
Pioneer era
Under an act passed by the U.S. Congress on February 27, 1861, privately printed cards (which weighed one ounce or less) were allowed to be sent by mail. John P. Charlton copyrighted the first postcard in America that same year. The rights to this card were later sold to Hymen L. Lipman, who began reissuing the cards under his name in 1870. The U.S. Postmaster General John Creswell recommended to the U.S. Congress one-cent postal cards in November 1870. Legislation was passed on June 8, 1872, which allowed the government to produce postal cards.
By law, only government-issued postcards were allowed to say "Postal Card". Privately printed postcards were still allowed but they were more expensive to mail (two-cent postage versus one-cent for government cards). Backs of these private cards typically contained the words "Correspondence Card", "Mail Card" or "Souvenir Card" The Morgan Envelope Factory of Springfield, Massachusetts, claims to have produced the first American postcard in 1873.
Political hold-ups including concerns by future President James Garfield (the Representative), delayed issuance of the official government postal. Finally, it was issued in May 1873, and first went on sale in Springfield, Massachusetts on May 12 of that year. According to The New York Times, postal clerks in the city sold 200,000 cards within 2.5 hours on May 14. Nationwide, 31 million postal cards were sold by the end of June 1873, and more than 64 million by the end of September. The numbers only continued to grow through 1910.