Seen Front Or Back––

Old American Postcards Offer Snapshots Of Everyday Life Long Ago

By Dottie Evans

Old postcards have a lot to tell us –– in their messages as well as their images.

“Having a great time,” “Wish you were here,” “Don’t forget to feed the dog,” “Pick up a loaf of bread,” and “I’ll be home for dinner.”

These mundane scribblings are just a sample of the familiar-sounding phrases that often filled the blank sides of millions of early American postcards during the first half of the last century. Two recent Cyrenius Booth Library presentations by two longtime, experienced postcard collectors have served to remind us that old postcards have value at many levels.

The first talk was given July 26 by Newtown native Jim Crick, 72, who exhibited many of his postcards showing early Main Street scenes at the Booth Library. As a 41-year veteran of the Newtown Post Office, Mr Crick retired in 1990 and now acts as sexton for the Ram Pasture. Many of his cards have turned up in the two Images of America photograph books edited by Town Historian Dan Cruson.

More recently, Litchfield resident Carl Kallgren, 79, gave an illustrated talk on the history of the American postcard to members and friends of the Newtown Historical Society. On Monday, November 10, he told his audience about his many experiences as a postcard collector as well as a dealer, adding that he has amassed a collection of more than 300,000 cards. Eight thousand of these are Connecticut scenes.

Mr Kallgren said he first “got into it,” meaning the love of collecting postcards, when he was a little boy visiting his grandmother and she would tell him, “If you are good, you can look at my postcards.”

“Everyone collected in those days,” he added, referring to what is considered today the Golden Age of postcards, between 1898 and 1918.

During most of these 20 years, telephones (which did not see general use until after 1915) were not yet available. But since mail was delivered twice or even three times a day, many people used postcards to keep in touch.

“You didn’t have to write a lot, which was good because there wasn’t much room on those cards. That meant they got to the point quickly,” Mr Kallgren noted.

The images, of course, are especially interesting from a historian’s point of view because so much change has happened over the past 100 years. A 1910 postcard view of a one-lane street in a small town like Newtown or Litchfield, where a few houses and businesses were shaded by tall trees, might deliver a jolt of nostalgia today, “especially when we realize that those trees are gone, and the same view is barely recognizable,” he added.

Viewing the oldest postcards, it is hard not to yearn for yesterday, Mr Kallgren said, when a card showing two horse-and-buggy drivers passing each other on a dirt road was all those old-timers knew about traffic.

After showing slides of unusual cards in his collection, Mr Kallgren touched upon every era of postcard design from the 1893 Pioneer Cards to the modern chromatographic photo cards dating from 1945 to the present. A general summary is included below.

Pioneer Cards (1893–1898). Most pioneer cards were placed on sale at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago on May 1, 1893. These were government printed postal cards with the one-cent stamp printed on the corner. A written message was not permitted on the address side.

Private Mailing Cards (1898–1901). On May 19, 1898, private printers were granted permission by an Act of Congress to print and sell cards that bore the inscription “Private Mailing Cards.” Postage was now a one-cent adhesive stamp.

Undivided Back Cards (1901–1907). The use of the word “Post Card” was granted by the government to private printers on December 24, 1901. Writing was still not permitted on the address side. Private citizens began to take black-and-white photos and have them printed on paper with postcard backs.

Divided Back Cards (1907–1915). These were permitted March 1, 1907. The address was written on the right side and the left side was for messages. Millions of cards were published this year and most were printed in Germany. With the advent of World War I, the supply of postcards had to come from England and the United States.

White Border Cards (1915–1930). Most postcards were printed in the United State during this period. To save ink, a border was left around the view. High cost of labor and inexperience caused production of poor quality cards and many publishers went out of business.

Linen Cards (1930–1945). New printing processes allowed printing on postcards with high rag content. These cheap cards allowed the use of gaudy dye for coloring. The firm of Curt Teich flourished on its line of linen post cards. The cards romanticized the images of gas stations, diners, hotels, and other commercial buildings. Using the photographic image of an establishment, all undesirable features, such as telephone poles, junkyards, background clutter, and sometimes even cars and people, were removed by air-brushing.

Modern Chrome Cards (1945 to present). Photochrome postcards started to dominate the scene soon after they were published by the Union Oil Company in its western service stations in 1939. Today, chrome cards are published in the standard and larger, continental sizes.