Vintage Postcard History
The Postcard Craze Begins: 1901
Postcards made their American debut, like many other things, at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The concept of mailing a message on a small card existed before then, but this is where what we think of today as postcards gained popularity as mementos for picturing various buildings and attractions. People did not have cameras and they bought postcards and souvenir viewbooks to show their friends back home where they had been.
For years, the US government charged one cent to mail one of their lame official government-printed postals or two cents to mail a card made by a private printer. When the government equalized both at one cent in mid-1901, a huge number of companies began to compete in the postcard market. The diversity and quality of postcards increased dramatically. This increased demand and the virtuous cycle fed on itself.
A craze gripped the nation as people formed postcard clubs, traded postcards, and hoarded them. You could buy the same postcard in black and white, in color (see below), or in color with glitter outlining every building for no discernible reason. Our ancestors really put some effort into their postcards, especially considering that glitter had to be glued on by hand. Where there's a will, there's a way.
Postcards become Edwardian Email: 1907
The frenzy grew especially frothy in mid-1907, when the US government went from allowing only an address on the reverse side to allowing some space for writing. Because mail was picked up and delivered multiple times each day in cities, postcards became a form of email and frequently have quick notes, like, "Are you still able to come tomorrow?" "Yes, see you there." It's not surprising that in 1908, almost 700 million postcards were mailed in the US, over six for every US citizen at the time. Sometimes you'll see the same postcard with multiple addresses, stamps and cancellation dates, as the same card was mailed around within a group of friends.
Adding some color to a black & white world
The people who worked at postcard printers frequently were given a black-and-white picture and told to produce a color postcard from it. The only problem is that many color cards were printed in Germany because of superior German printing technology at the time. These German workers had never been to Coney Island. They did their best and followed basic instructions but when all else failed, simply made up colors as the mood struck them. Below, check out two identical cards printed by different companies.
Postcards made their American debut, like many other things, at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The concept of mailing a message on a small card existed before then, but this is where what we think of today as postcards gained popularity as mementos for picturing various buildings and attractions. People did not have cameras and they bought postcards and souvenir viewbooks to show their friends back home where they had been.
For years, the US government charged one cent to mail one of their lame official government-printed postals or two cents to mail a card made by a private printer. When the government equalized both at one cent in mid-1901, a huge number of companies began to compete in the postcard market. The diversity and quality of postcards increased dramatically. This increased demand and the virtuous cycle fed on itself.
A craze gripped the nation as people formed postcard clubs, traded postcards, and hoarded them. You could buy the same postcard in black and white, in color (see below), or in color with glitter outlining every building for no discernible reason. Our ancestors really put some effort into their postcards, especially considering that glitter had to be glued on by hand. Where there's a will, there's a way.
Postcards become Edwardian Email: 1907
The frenzy grew especially frothy in mid-1907, when the US government went from allowing only an address on the reverse side to allowing some space for writing. Because mail was picked up and delivered multiple times each day in cities, postcards became a form of email and frequently have quick notes, like, "Are you still able to come tomorrow?" "Yes, see you there." It's not surprising that in 1908, almost 700 million postcards were mailed in the US, over six for every US citizen at the time. Sometimes you'll see the same postcard with multiple addresses, stamps and cancellation dates, as the same card was mailed around within a group of friends.
Adding some color to a black & white world
The people who worked at postcard printers frequently were given a black-and-white picture and told to produce a color postcard from it. The only problem is that many color cards were printed in Germany because of superior German printing technology at the time. These German workers had never been to Coney Island. They did their best and followed basic instructions but when all else failed, simply made up colors as the mood struck them. Below, check out two identical cards printed by different companies.
|
|
Koehler's Coney Island Hold-to-Light Postcards
At the height of the Postcard Craze, companies were producing millions of postcards of all types: simple black-and-white cards, color cards, glitter cards, woven cards, and my personal favorites, hold-to-light cards. If you wanted to impress that special someone with a mailed greeting in 1907, you wouldn't have mailed some cheap and flimsy American-made card. You'd head to the local postcard store and buy German to send the message that you really cared. Koehler made a collection of very desirable Coney Island hold-to-light postcards circa 1907, among the finest ever produced. All cards were printed in Germany on heavy cardboard and are stunning even after 100 years.
This is the rare complete twelve-card set of hold-to-light postcards Koehler made of Coney Island c. 1906, shown in both the light and the dark. It is part of a 24-card New York series. Known as "transparent post cards" at the time, Koehler provided stores with a display that could use electricity, gas or lamp to show off up to 13 postcards at a time. Today, some of these postcards are very rare. This particular series was first printed as undivided back c. 1906 and then changed to divided back c. 1907with the change of postal rules.
Advertisements in trade magazines show that Koehler sold them to post card retailers at 2.5 cents each ($25 per 1,000). Considering that at the time a sandwich cost 5 cents, a pound of sugar cost 4 cents, and a dozen eggs were 14 cents, these postcards weren't cheap, especially once the retailer incorporated their markup. Today, these cards are valued for their rarity and image quality.
Click any card for a larger image. Koehler focused almost exclusively on Luna Park, with just three postcards of Dreamland and none of Steeplechase Park. It may be that Luna Park paid for the right to be advertised through these cards; images in other popular guidebooks of the time occasionally lean heavily towards one of the amusement parks, which in those cases is easily explained by the number of advertisements in the guidebook paid for by that particular amusement park. Everything was for sale!
This is the rare complete twelve-card set of hold-to-light postcards Koehler made of Coney Island c. 1906, shown in both the light and the dark. It is part of a 24-card New York series. Known as "transparent post cards" at the time, Koehler provided stores with a display that could use electricity, gas or lamp to show off up to 13 postcards at a time. Today, some of these postcards are very rare. This particular series was first printed as undivided back c. 1906 and then changed to divided back c. 1907with the change of postal rules.
Advertisements in trade magazines show that Koehler sold them to post card retailers at 2.5 cents each ($25 per 1,000). Considering that at the time a sandwich cost 5 cents, a pound of sugar cost 4 cents, and a dozen eggs were 14 cents, these postcards weren't cheap, especially once the retailer incorporated their markup. Today, these cards are valued for their rarity and image quality.
Click any card for a larger image. Koehler focused almost exclusively on Luna Park, with just three postcards of Dreamland and none of Steeplechase Park. It may be that Luna Park paid for the right to be advertised through these cards; images in other popular guidebooks of the time occasionally lean heavily towards one of the amusement parks, which in those cases is easily explained by the number of advertisements in the guidebook paid for by that particular amusement park. Everything was for sale!
Coney Island Hold-to-Light Postcards | Luna Park
|
|
|
|
|
|
Coney Island Hold-to-Light Postcards | Dreamland
|
|
|
|
|
|
Coney Island Hold-to-Light Postcards | Surf Avenue, Concourse Park & Beach
|
|
|
Return to Coney Island History Homepage