Page 18 - Postcard

Postcards

Before email, Facebook, and other means of electronic communication, when
people wanted to share their experiences and thoughts and keep in touch with
their friends and colleagues, they wrote postcards and mailed them to each
other. Postcards can be an outstanding source of social history, because they
show what was popular or seen as important or interesting at the time that the
postcard was produced. People chose postcards because they found the picture
interesting, and they wrote short messages (not personal private notes, because
anyone could read them) that seized the moment.

The first postal card, that is a card pre-printed with a picture and a postage
stamp, was issued in the United States in 1861; and the first officially printed
postal cards were issued simultaneously in Switzerland and Austria in 1869.

In Great Britain – In 1894, the Post Office gave the green light to the private
publication of picture postcards for sending through the mail with appropriate
postage.

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