Stories within
What can a single image tell you about a place, its culture or the time? Apparently, a lot. In 2018, a family in London showcased the postcard correspondence between two of its members: Annie Reynolds and her niece May. The postcards, dated between 1912 and 1919, have beautiful artwork that captures the essence of places in India they lived in – Madras, Nilgiris, Mahabalipuram and so on – through local landmarks, monuments and family photographs. The handwritten messages on them are relatively insignificant, but the postcards encapsulate the culture of that time.
The origins
Postcards probably originated in 1777 with the start of the postal services, when French engraver Demaison printed a sheet engraved with multiple cards and greetings. The messages could be cut out and posted to recipients. The idea didn’t really take off: people wanted their messages to be private, not open for everyone to see. Besides, the postage cost, which was quite high, was payable by the receiver. Often, people simply refused to receive postal messages. This changed when British postal reforms brought down the cost of domestic post while ensuring profits for the postal system by making the sender pay the postage in advance. Around 1840, when the Penny Black postage stamp made its debut, writer Theodore Hook mailed the first hand-painted picture postcard to himself as a practical joke. The card sold for 31, 750 pounds at a 2002 auction.
Born again
In February 1861, when the U.S. government allowed privately printed cards to be posted, printer John P. Charlton patented the design of the postal card. He sold the rights to stationer Hymen Lipman who went on to invent lead pencils and erasers and set up the first envelope company in the U.S. The Lipman Cards, however, were forgotten in the wake of the Civil War and remained buried for almost a decade. It was in 1869, in distant Austria, that the postcard was reborn. Emmanuel Hermann, an Economics professor, proposed the postcard as a cheaper and easier alternative to handwritten letters, Austrian Post, in response, designed a light-brown, rectangular card with space for the address on one side and the message on the other. A postage stamp was imprinted on the top right corner, and the postcard’s cost was half that of a normal letter.
By the 1880s, sketched images started appearing on postcards. Called “Vignettes”, these postcards depicted ordinary scenes and had space for a handwritten message. Soon, Germany became the hub of chromolithography – a technique to reproduce multi-colour photographs. Bulk of the postcards during this period was produced in Germany. In 1889, when the Eifel Tower was thrown open to public, French engraver Charles Libonis designed postcards featuring the monument. The novelty postcards, known as Libonis, became popular souvenirs.
Picture postcards
With the growing popularity of photographs on postcards in the 1890s, Kodak, a producer of cameras and related products, launched a negative that was the same size as a postcard, and with that picture postcards became easier to produce. In 1893, they were commercially produced, packed and sold as a set in the U.S. for the first time. The beautifully detailed and coloured pictures became an instant success as souvenirs and gifts.
The 1900s can be considered the ‘golden era’ of postcards. The postcard design underwent change with the front fully dedicated to artwork and the back divided between the address and the message. The Divided Back Postcard – artistic, convenient and inexpensive – could be mailed internationally and became a hugely popular mode of communication. Landscapes, local sights, portraits, humour and even current events made up the artwork. During World War I, soldiers used postcards to exchange poignant messages with friends and family, recording compelling stories of their times, some of which have survived to the present.
And today…
Postcards continued to evolve with technological advances in the printing and publishing industry. Curt Teich, one of the offset printing’s pioneers, added postcards to his existing portfolio of newspaper and magazines. His printing technique gave the postcard a slightly embossed look and showed the artwork in sharper, brighter colours. Became the texture of the finished postcard resembled linen, they came to be known as linen postcards. As time passed, a white border was added to the postcard to make the high-precision task of cropping and trimming the borders easier.
The current postcard era, which began around 1939, is the chrome era. These contemporary postcards have a glossy finish and have more of a souvenir value. Communication has been taken over by text messages, voice messages and email. Photographs are shared over social media. Postcards, while not dead yet, play second fiddle to digital media.
Picture Credit : Google