| History
of Postcards As the basis of this website is my collection of Edwardian
actress photo postcards, it seemed appropriate to include a
page telling the story of how those postcards originated. This
then, very briefly, is the story of the history of the photo
postcard up to the Edwardian era. Origins Postcards, as distinct from letters, were first
used in Austria from around 1869. The idea behind their introduction
was to provide a cheap means for brief communications. Since
postcards were lighter and more easily handled than letters,
due to their standard size, they could be offered at a lower
postal rate. They proved very popular with the public and were
soon copied by other European countries, including Great Britain. The postcard was first introduced to Great
Britain in 1870. At first they were just plain unadorned cards,
with the address to be written on one side and the message on
the other, and could only be issued by the Post Office with
a pre-printed 'stamp'. It was not until 1894 that the Post Office
relinquished its monopoly on the publishing of postcards, and
allowed their private publication for use with an adhesive stamp
as proof that postage had been paid. This led the way to the
widespread introduction of illustrated postcards, but since
the Post Office still insisted that one side be used for the
address only, the size of any illustration was limited by the
need to reserve at least some space on which to write the message.
Picture postcards of this type might allow space for only the
very briefest of messages. Because of this, and the poor range
of subject matter (mainly limited to seaside and city views),
picture postcards did not immediately become a big success.
by
Don Gillan. |

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