Postcard Archaeology Helper

History facts of the US postcards-
Private postcards were first copyrighted on Dec. 17, 1861,
by JP Charlton and published by HL Lipman of Philadelphia.
The basic design used today was established at that time-
3 lines for address, a stamp box, and a tag line. The first
"post" cards had an advertisement appearing on the back that
read: "This Postal Card offers great facilities for sending
Messages or for rapid correspondence. It is only about half
the price of paper and envelopes. It is ready for instant
dispatch. It is a convinient mode for ordering goods. It is
valuable to Travellers, affording ready communication. It is
useful to societies for sending notices. It is of advantage
to merchants for circulars. It lightens the mails, cheapens
the postage..."

The Lipman cards started a trend that is still popular over
130 years later. But it did have a slow start and the United
States government did not produce cards until May 1, 1873,
under the Postal Card Act of June 8, 1872.

The Universal Exposition in Paris in 1889 issued a single
souvenir postcard that was purchased at the base of the
Eiffel Tower and the owner would carry it to the top of the
tower for posting at a government station. This novelty
encouraged the idea of souvenir issues sold in 1893 at the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago consisting of
commercially produced picture postcards.The souvenir sets of
post cards sold at the Chicago Exposition was a very
important part of the picture postcard history. The cards
were printed by American Lithographics Co. in NY with the
agent Charles W. Goldsmith, Chicago, responsible for the
marketing of these cards. They are rare and sought after by
collectors, but the other "rarer" cards of the Columbian
were unofficially issued by Girsch and Roehsler, NY with the
agent Joseph Koehler resonsible for marketing.

Collecting postcards became popular in 1905 but the main
popularity started in 1909 (another subject for later). The
early cards were mailed at a postage rate of 2 cents if it
contained a message, and one cent without. Later is was
changed to just one cent for any card.

The early cards were crude compared to the European cards
and Germany was mass producing cards with a technology far
advanced from US cards. Later Germany became the main source
for a period of time for cards sold here in the US.
Post cards and postage stamps have been an important part of
history. The have carried news of good tidings, sad news,
announcements, advertisements, religious messages, orders,
propaganda, jigsaw puzzles, paper dolls, spy messages during
wartime, and a host of other information.

Many small town postmasters had a lucrative side-line with
the selling of one cent stamps for the postcards and the
government helped to encourage the extensive use of the
souvenir cards. Postcard albums was on most drawing room
tables alongside the family photograph albums starting in
1907. The fact that so many were stored in albums has given
the collector today a chance to obtain cards that are over
90 years old.

Arcade Cards - postcard size, but plain back.
Chrome - Any card after 1939 with a shiny paper surface.
Deckle-edge - ripple or serrated edge cards
Linen - Postcards from 20s thru 50s using textured cross hatched surface.
Real Photo - Actual photo on photographic paper, not a printed image of a photograph.
Home Made Photo - A photograph with a postcard back, non-commercial.
View Cards - Cards that feature cities and places within cities.
Pioneer Postcards - 1870-1898 (these are the first ones!)
Private Mailing Cards 1898-1901

(these are what postcards were called at this time)

Also, postcards are often dated by whether they had a
divided or undivided backs (the line down the middle)
Undivided back - 1901-1907
Divided back - 1907-1915 (and to present, of course)

Many people also refer to "Pre-Linens",
it indicates any view card that predates
linen cards. Usually they're artificially colored. There
are tons of these around, usually pre-1930.

Taken from my old Antiques and Collecting community pages:

http://www.gizex.com/communities.html

Which also have the Gardening pages and archives.

Somewhere I have more, but with thousands of floppies and time working against me, I can't find anything around here.