History Of Postcards-Middle Era
As of March 1, 1907, the divided back postcard came into circulation. They quickly became more popular because they allowed senders to write the address and the message on the back of the card. The address had to be written on the right hand side of the reverse of the postcard while the left hand side was reserved for writing messages.
Postcards from this period are very collectible when they do not have writing on the front. It was around this time that the hobby of postcard collecting atrracted huge public interest and publishers printed millions of cards in this era. Most postcards were printed in Germany which was the world leader in lithographic processes.
At the height of the postcard collecting 'boom' the advent of World War I ended the supply of postcards from Germany. Poorer quality postcards came from English and U.S. publishers.
The lower quality of printed postcards, recurrent influenza epidemics, and World War I war shortages almost 'killed' the American postcard hobby. During the war years, the telephone replaced the postcard as a fast, reliable, means to keep in touch.
WHITE BORDER ERA (1915-1930)
When imports from Germany stopped in the first World War, the U.S. began printing postcards to fill the void. Unfortunately, this also ended the "Golden Age" of postcards. After WWI, the German publishing industry was never rebuilt. Other European publishers were forced out of the U.S. market by high tariff rates and most locally available postcards were printed by U.S. publishers during this period.
On view postcards, to save ink, a white border was left around the view, and that is why we call them "White Border" postcards. The higher costs of post-war publishing combined with inexperienced labour caused production of poorer quality cards. Higher competition in a rapidly narrowing market caused many publishers to go out of business.
On the other hand, real photo postcard publishers enjoyed great success. Various types of rotary drum negative imprints allowed runs of thousands of postcards of a particular image. Roadside postcard racks contained a great variety of these images.
LINEN ERA (1930-1945)
In the 1930s, the quality of postcard printing in the United States improved. Publishers began using linen-like paper with a high rag content. These types of cards are very popular with collectors today.
Of particular interest are Roadside America, Comics and Advertising genres.
New American printing processes allowed printing on postcards with a high rag content. This was a marked improvement over the White Border postcard. The rag content also gave these postcards a textured feel.
They were also cheaper to produce and allowed the use of bright dyes for image colouring. They proved to be extremely popular with roadside establishments seeking cheap advertising.
For this reason, linen postcards document the social history of the building of America's highway infra-structure. Most notable among the early linen publishers was the firm of Curt Teich.
The majority of linen postcard production ended around 1939 with the advent of the color chrome postcard. However, a few linen firms, mainly Southern, published well into the late 1950s and real photo publishers of black & white images continued to have success.
Faster reproducing equipment and lowering costs led to an explosion of real photo mass produced postcards. Once again the postcard industry was impacted by the breakout of war, in this case World war 2. During the war, shortages and a need for military personnel forced many postcard companies to reprint older views when printing material was available.
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