Travel Postcards: "Wish You Were Here"
The Golden Age of Postcards
For most people today, the word "postcard"
brings to mind a little cardboard rectangle, usually with a picturesque view
on the front, scribbled with a few lines and sent off during a vacation. In
their early days, though, postcards were much more than travel souvenirs.
They were sent for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes for no reason at all.
The number and variety of cards available was nothing short of staggering,
and sending and collecting postcards became an international addiction.
From 1898 to 1918, the "golden age" of postcards, American and Europeans sent and collected billions of these colorful cards. By 1913, more than 968 million postcards were being sent every year in the United States. The familiar view and holiday cards were soon joined by cards of every description-birthday and Christmas greetings, advertising, cartoons, and images of nearly anything you might imagine, from ships and railway engines to animals, famous people, "naughty girls," and illustrations by the leading artists of the day.
Postcards served as souvenirs, introduced people to faraway lands, stimulated debate on social issues, fostered art appreciation, and, of course, kept people in touch with one another. The more widespread and interesting the subject matter depicted on the card, the more people liked them. Eventually, you didn't need a particular reason to send a postcard to a friend-the picture was reason enough, and if you were lucky, the recipient might send you one back!
Many postcards were strikingly beautiful: publishers sought out the most talented artists and illustrators to produce them, and improvements in chromolithographic printing meant that more than forty colors of ink could be used to produce an image. As postcards became ever more popular, publishers strived to make them increasingly novel and eye-catching. There were postcards that folded, had cutouts, or parts that moved; decoration included materials like glitter stickers, and fur.
Postcards were also avidly collected, and many fine examples have been preserved for generations in family albums. Postcards are admired and collected today for the insight they provide on artistic and social tastes of the past, national humor, changing cityscapes and topography, historical events, and postal history, and as examples of fine artwork and printing.
In
Worcester
In Worcester, too, 1898 was a significant
date. In that same year City Hall and the Worcester Art Museum were dedicated.
Those noted buildings along with hundreds of others soon appeared on picture
postcards-a panorama of old Worcester hardly to be equaled in any other medium.
Wish you were here... book available at WHM.
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