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I have some small stamps of the alphabet and I spent a whole day creating these stamped words to then collage into my work.

I didn't repeat any words because I knew it would be a digital collage so I could repeat the words... so if you try and read the story it won't make much sense!

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The original final images, before feedback and reworking

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The original final images, before feedback and reworking

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Some details if shadows I wanted to work in

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Specific studies of details I was struggling with

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Getting more finalised with compositional ideas

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This is a more specific page of planning. Although to an outsider this looks like an almost undiscernable page of scribbles, this is the way I work in order to map out my thoughts concerning composition.

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Ways of thinking about composition and the relationship between the characters

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This was a page of planning, figuring out how to divide the story so that I could illustrate each section.

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This was another experimental piece I did, testing different colours and mediums. This was in response to the line in the story "the shy smiling sellers, the look of young and old in the rain, hail and snow". I like the way the people intersect, and all the different expressions and characters, but there is hardly any context outside of these characters. Also the colours were difficult to blend, and it feels a little cluttered because of this.

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This was a small experimental piece I made in response to the line in the story "we slept most of the way". I love the effect of the washes of ink layered with charcoal. However, the medium is difficult to work with and to create defined faces. I was worried I wouldn't be able to continue with consistent character if I worked in this way.

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This is a collaged version of the poem, with all the real fragments from the different postcards. As you can see, there are no filler words, every single word is from someone else's story. The only part I played is stringing them together.

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This was the final draft of the story that emerged out of the collaged postcards. I think its' a melancholy tale with a nostalgic voice.

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Looking through the gathered phrases, some words and ideas seemed to link and create small stories. I jotted these down and continued to draft in the hopes that a narrative would appear.

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I went through all the postcards I found in the Crouch End collection and picked out any that had visual potential. I wrote them in a very random arrangement.

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Although differing from my chosen method of image generation, Stezaker's work was useful in understanding the context that postcards inherently hold, of a past time, connections and communications between people. His work is humorous and melancholy, and much more rough around the edges, which I think moving forward would be helpful to implement in my own work.

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Priya made a suggestion of looking at John Stezaker following on from my AV presentation, exploring postcards as a tool for collages, and their collection format as an alternative compositional method.

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Longstaff, Emma (2022) 'Collecting Postcards', Homes And Antiques [Online]

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Again, more research around the art of deltiology.

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'Wish you were here?' We tend to think postcards go hand in hand with a traditional seaside holiday, along with fish and chips, sandcastles, and disappointing weather. But Georgina Tomlinson, a deputy curator at London's Postal Museum, explains that in their early days, postcards were used more like emails or text messages: 'When we go back to the first postcards, they were very plain, with a pre-printed stamp. They were designed to be a functional communication tool - and very quick and cheap to send at half the price of a standard letter. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, postal collections and deliveries were so frequent, especially in central London, you could send a postcard in the morning and it would arrive the same day.'

The first stamp in the world was issued in England in 1840, but postcards actually originated in Austria-Hungary; the earliest British postcards were produced in 1870. The British Post Office accepted picture postcards at the halfpenny rate in 1894, but one whole side was still left free for the address - any message had to be squeezed around the image.

It wasn't until 1902 that the divided back cards we're more familiar with today were approved for use. Anyone could potentially read the message on a postcard, so some senders resorted to code, like Morse or mirror-writing. 'There was also a language of stamps - the angle at which the stamp was stuck said something specific, like "I love you" - but as this seems to have been quite widely known, it wasn't really very secret,' laughs Georgina.

You might also like collecting antique photographs

Huge numbers of postcards were sent in the early years of the 20th century- up to 900 million every year. We have accurate figures, as the Post Office had a special postcard rate, until it was replaced with the first and second class system in 1968. Savvy postcard publishers devised ways of boosting sales even further by encouraging a collecting craze, says Georgina: 'The company Raphael Tuck & Sons ran competitions to see who could collect the most postcards. They were also numbered and produced in series, the idea being that you'd try to assemble them all.' And when holidays on the coast became popular with the masses, publishers seized the opportunity to produce cards depicting bustling promenades and sunny beaches.

During the First World War, soldiers at the front were given free postage, and encouraged to write home as a way of boosting morale. Georgina describes how the messages could be far from poetic: 'They might just scribble something like "Still going strong" - but imagine how much that meant to a mother back home.'

There's something so moving about a postcard, she thinks: 'When you hold an old card in your hand, it can be a very emotive and tangible link with the past. It's been handled by two people connected in some way. The way people wrote to each other helps us see into the ordinary, everyday lives of people who often get left out of history. The messages can be so simple, but the character of the people writing them really comes across. We hear the voices of people as they really were, and not a romanticised version.'

It's these insights into social history that make postcards so appealing, agrees Ken Payne, an expert valuer at 1818 Auctioneers in Cumbria: 'At auction, the most valuable postcards show us how people really used to live and work. They're pictures of lost worlds. Topographical cards from the early 1900s achieve the highest prices at auction, especially when they're showing vehicles, people, events like parades and fairs, even accidents like tram crashes, train crashes, and mill fires. Black-and white images of country scenes don't appeal in the same way.'

You might also like a beginners guide to buying at auction

In June 2021, 1818 Auctioneers sold a large collection of postcards of Barrow-in-Furness photographed around the turn of the century, depicting ships, dockyards, airships, even fires in factories, which made £12,000. In the same sale, a very unusual set of postcards from Singapore and Penang in the early 1900s went for £7,000.

Although really rare collections of topographical cards can make thousands at auction, individual postcards, or even a bundle, sell at postcard fairs or online for just a few pounds, making this one of the most accessible areas of collecting. There are many themes on which a collection could be focused - old shopfronts, scenes from Skegness, Suffragettes... or perhaps you'll be intrigued by the messages. As Georgina puts it, 'With postcards, there's beauty on both sides.'

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'Wish you were here?' We tend to think postcards go hand in hand with a traditional seaside holiday, along with fish and chips, sandcastles, and disappointing weather. But Georgina Tomlinson, a deputy curator at London's Postal Museum, explains that in their early days, postcards were used more like emails or text messages: 'When we go back to the first postcards, they were very plain, with a pre-printed stamp.

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Again, a suggestion made by Priya was to look into Sophie Calle's work as a way of exploring this voyeuristic collection of other people's lives and stories. She did this through photography and arrangement of objects into a collection, so similar methodology but very different visual outcomes.

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This book was very important research in exploring how postcards have evolved in their purpose. Now, postcards serve a significant role as an accessible forms of artist's work that can be taken home and owned by the public. Some of the key messages have been highlighted here.

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Dawood, Sarah (2019) "There is snobbery around postcards": British Museum explores overlooked art form', Design Week [Online]

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This was follow-up research from the book about artists' postcards, looking into their new role in society.

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A new show at the British Museum features 300 artists' postcards from the last 60 years, which look to demonstrate the political power of the little prints, and how they have helped to "democratise" art by breaking away from gallery culture.

Long gone are the days where postcards would be used widely to communicate with and keep in touch with people. But the little 15cm x 10cm rectangles still serve a purpose, whether that's to form a collection of mementos from various holidays, or to surprise someone with a piece of post when they need cheering up.

But to what extent do we see these small rectangles as artworks in their own right? While museums and galleries will often shrink down famous David Hockney and Pablo Picasso pieces to fit the reduced size format and bulk sell in their gift shops, postcards can also be the original canvas for art; many artists and designers throughout history have used their small size and easily dispensable quality as a way to share a message or raise their own profile.

The British Museum is exploring the versatile art form through its new exhibition The World Exists To Be Put on a Postcard: Artists' Postcards from 1960 to Now.

The show features 300 postcards made by artists over the last 60 years, donated to the museum by writer and curator Jeremy Cooper, who has spent the last 10 years collecting roughly 1,000 postcards from various means, including online marketplaces and real-life flea markets.

His collection has been whittled down by himself and the British Museum curatorial team to 300 pieces, including original artworks by famous names such as Tracy Emin, as well as those by lesser-known, "avant-garde" artists who are radical and experimental in their approach.

By showing a broad range, the exhibition aims to show the "democratising" nature of the postcard, says Jenny Ramkalawon, curator at the museum and co-curator of the show. This led to the decision to create a giant "pinboard effect" for the exhibition space, with postcards pinned to boards and "scattered" in display cases, rather than "mounted reverently", she says. The design of the space has been completed in-house.

"We didn't want to give the postcards a 'museum feel', or make them inaccessible," she adds. "Anyone can collect postcards. Many of these, even the ones by famous artists like Joseph Beuys, you could pick up for a few pounds, whereas there was no way most people could go to an art auction and get a full-size artwork from the same artist. Jeremy [Cooper] was fed up by high prices in the art world.

The ramshackle display of the postcards in the exhibition also looks to reflect the experimental nature of the art that has graced them over the decades. The ability for postcard artists to spread subversive, political messages was made easier by the fact that they could be easily disseminated and shared by post, says Ramkalawon, while avoiding the need to be approved by a gallery or museum meant the art was both more accessible and could be more radical.

"Their accessibility has made them incredibly effective as political tools," Ramkalawon says. "They're small, cheap, and could be easily swapped between friends."

The exhibition is split into 15 thematic sections, including political postcards, feminist postcards, fluxus (experimental, performance-based) art postcards, and postcard invitations, so those that were sent out to advertise or promote an event, gallery opening or talk. Other sections include graphic and letterpress postcards, and portrait postcards, which feature portrait photos of artists.

The idea joining all the postcards together is that they are works of art in their own right, says Ramkalawon, and had the intention of being sent via post rather than hung up in a gallery space.

"The core of the exhibition is that these postcards were original artist concepts, rather than shrinking the Mona Lisa to fit," she says. "These are not the kind of things you buy in a museum shop."

One experimental postcard that features in the show is Postman's Choice, a witty piece by artist Ron Gauthier, which includes an address to one person on one side of the postcard and an address to somebody else on the other side, leaving the decision of where to send it up to the person delivering the post. Featuring in the fluxus section of the exhibition, this art movement focused on experimental art performance, with the emphasis on the process and undertaking of work rather than the final product.

Feminist examples include Eleanor Antin's 100 Boots, which documented her trip around California, where she bought and photographed 100 different Wellington boots in various locations, producing 100 separate postcards.

Politics is represented through multiple depictions of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan from the 1980s, Photo Op, a piece by Peter Kennard and Cat Phillips showing Tony Blair taking a selfie against an image of burning oilfields, and Art for the Moratorium, an anti-Vietnam war postcard by Jasper Johns.

Ramkalawon says that while the postcard has the capacity to be very subversive, given how easy it is to share, for this reason it has also been devalued as art and treated as more disposable than traditional gallery work.

"It has been overlooked as an art form," she says. "There's a real snobbery about this kind of ephemeral art, like there has been with Christmas cards and lottery tickets. But they offer viewers so much about life in the 20th and 21st century, from its political climate to people's interests and concerns."

She adds that, despite their effectiveness, certain types of postcards are increasingly dying out - while artists may continue to create work in the format, certain uses, such as invitations, are becoming obsolete as email invites take over.

"Some of the invitation postcards we have in the show are rare, because often they are just discarded after someone's been to a gallery opening," says Ramkalawon. "But they often have really interesting contextual and historical information on them about the exhibiting artist. They're incredibly informative."

She adds that, while postcards may continue to exist, traditional techniques for producing them may also become non-existent.

"It's becoming more difficult to find people who make postcards, such as lithographers," she says. "Instead, the images are all becoming digital. I feel true postcard art has come to an end, but I'm happy to be proved wrong - there are some younger artists still using them in their practices."

What sets the postcard apart from gallery art is that, while art within its own right, it was once used prolifically as a means to communicate and share information. As digital communication takes over, it could be that the postcard becomes less useful in conveying a political or social message - particularly when people's thoughts can reach millions of people across the world via social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

For this reason, the British Museum hopes to immortalise Jeremy Cooper's postcard collection, and reserve the individual pieces as reminders of various artistic movements, and different social and political climates. The show also hopes to show visitors the extent of the British Museum, emphasising that it devotes space to contemporary and avante-garde art, as well as history.

"Postcards are a snapshot of history, which is why I think the British Museum is a great place for them," says Ramkalawon. "I hope this show will show visitors the diversity of our collections, and the artists we collect."
The World Exists To Be Put On A Postcard: Artists' Postcards from 1960 to Now runs until 4 August 2019 at Room 90, the British Museum, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG. Entry is free. For more information, head here. Following the exhibition, the collection of postcards will be kept in the British Museum's archives, and can be accessed and viewed by visitors by booking an advance appointment.

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"There is snobbery around postcards": British Museum explores art form

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A new show at the British Museum features 300 artists' postcards from the last 60 years, which look to demonstrate the political power of the little prints, and how they have helped to "democratise" art by breaking away from gallery culture.

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Ashmolean Museum Oxford (2023), MANISHA GERA BASWANI: POSTCARDS FROM HOME, Oxford, 14 May 2022 – 12 Mar 2023

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This is an interesting exhibition surrounding postcards as a form of communication but also photography.

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MANISHA GERA BASWANI: POSTCARDS FROM HOME

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This interactive exhibition of postcards from New Delhi artist Manisha Gera Baswani marks the 75th anniversary of India and Pakistan's partition with photographs of 47 artists from India and Pakistan.

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Postcards - The Postal Museum (2020) [Online]

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The lens of looking at postcards as a form of communication. Their format and history.

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Explore the history of design in the postal service, from posters, uniforms, letterboxes and maps to iconic designs like the Penny Black and Machin stamp.

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Heathcote, Edwin (2022) 'What's the point of old postcards?', Apollo Magazine [Online]

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Research around the format of old postcards, and the act of collecting them.

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What’s the point of old postcards? | Apollo Magazine

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Edwin Heathcote finds that a collection of unused postcards can still send a powerful message

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Abadie, M & Beale, S. 'Nothing to write home about: Celebrating the heyday of the British holiday postcard' (2007) Friday Books: Great Britain

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A piece of research that felt integral to this process was looking at Hinde's postcards in this collection. The key words circled here are exactly why I was drawn to these objects.

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Kasmin, J. 'Kasmin's Postcards: Odd' (2018) Trivia Press: Italy

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This was an example of a series of books by John Kasmin which document his collection of found postcards. It was very valuable research to see how someone else's collection of postcards can be organised into themes, and find a place in the world of publishable literature.

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Final disseminated residency response piece

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Final disseminated residency response piece

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I wanted to imagine all the journeys each postcard took from sender, to receiver (if there was one) and then finally to the box I found them in in Camberwell Crisis. Of course there is whimsy in how I visualised these journeys, drawing upon some of the lines in the postcards and taking these as imaginative prompts.

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I chose to then mount the collage onto a black organic oval background. I wanted a plain, stark colour to emphasise the many colours of the piece, but I still wanted it to feel home-made and collaged, which is why I didn’t opt for a frame. I feel really pleased with this format of display as it made it very easy to nail on to the wall and mount, as well as working well in contrast to the battered white walls behind.

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I used collage as my form of image-making as I wanted each scene to have a different kind of atmosphere and eclectic format to represent all the varied places and people that once owned these stories. I often struggle to use colour in such bold ways, but I feel really happy that I pushed through my initial apprehension because the palette worked really well to communicate the eclectic collection.

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When setting up my work in our residency showcase, I chose a space that had a big white background to offset the black mounted border. I also wanted a light close to my work so that all the details could be thoroughly viewed, but not so stark that it gave off a white, harsh light. I bought some yellow sheets to drape over the lights which worked perfectly.

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I would like to break down the mediums I used in this piece to give a full idea of the variation I employed in my approach to making. For the police figures, the old lady and the skater, I used coloured pencil for the face and limbs, and black felt pen for the clothes. For the box of postcards, I collaged clips of newspaper and outlined using brush pen before highlighting with gold POSCA pen. For the background colours, I used gouache paint and for the clips of writing I used stamps. The list goes on….

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For the camel, I used graphite pencil and outlined with gold POSCA pen.

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I did position the postcard scans in the position they would vaguely be if placed on a standard world map, with the ones from Japan on the right side, and those from America on the left. This was a subtle decision, but I believe the idea of a world map is so ingrained in the collective conscience that this composition helps people automatically understand the locations and distances of the journeys.

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I started with this huge piece of cardboard with paper coating it as a canvas. This was a pretty ambitious and daunting starting point but I am glad I pushed the work to this extent.

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After editing and consulting with Rose about the content of the text, I created this final poster design.

I felt really happy with how clear and concise it is but also how it combines the group's work in a synthesised way

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I made this as the background of my poster design in order to create synthesis between all our drawings. I initially wanted the black pen lines to be visual in the final design but when I added the drawings it appeared too busy.

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This was a huge piece I made looking at what makes a postcard a postcard and how those elements combine to define this genre. I loved the mediums combined here and felt really confident with this approach to image-making.

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Davis, S. 'Camberwell Road' (1960s) Southwark Archives

https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/title/21144/

Winifred Crum Ewing 'The Changing Face of Camberwell' (1963) https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/title/21132/

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Exhibition Documentary 'What is Mail Art? "Postcards to Brattleboro: 40 Years of Mail Art," (on view March 14 - October 12, 2020)

Tomas Gataveckas 'Who Built This Video Arts Postcards' (2010) https://youtu.be/RHSIhBF7khs?si=ZTK4_erjLNfa4cLX

The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

Kasmin, J. 'Kasmin's Postcards: Odd' (2018) Trivia Press: Italy

Abadie, M & Beale, S. 'Nothing to write home about: Celebrating the heyday of the British holiday postcard' (2007) Friday Books: Great Britain

Heathcote, Edwin (2022) 'What's the point of old postcards?', Apollo Magazine [Online]

Postcards - The Postal Museum (2020) [Online]

Ashmolean Museum Oxford (2023), MANISHA GERA BASWANI: POSTCARDS FROM HOME, Oxford, 14 May 2022 – 12 Mar 2023

Longstaff, Emma (2022) 'Collecting Postcards', Homes And Antiques [Online]

The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

Dawood, Sarah (2019) "There is snobbery around postcards": British Museum explores overlooked art form', Design Week [Online]

Tomas Gataveckas 'Who Built This Video Arts Postcards' (2010) https://youtu.be/RHSIhBF7khs?si=ZTK4_erjLNfa4cLX

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Andreanszky, M 'Petites histoires de familles' (2022) CCI Marseille: France

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A little book I bought in Marseille that uses handmade collage stamps - big inspiration for my medium choices

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The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

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The intro by Shaun Tan (one of the best illustrators in my opinion) to this beautiful book sums up the act of movement and travel beautifully.

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The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

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'Illustrators sent original images and personal messages, in postcard form"

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'Illustrators sent original images and personal messages, in postcard form"

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Such an amazing concept and use for postcards - amazing global project too.

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The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

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Beautiful simple image on front and interesting stamps on back - simple colour which I think is so considered.

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The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

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printmaking and simple dash of colour. Feels melancholy through usage of texture.

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The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

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The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

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Simple and naive in content but the quality of line is so solid and confident/ Handwriting is simple yet solid too - merging of text and image is so key to synthesis.

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The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, 'Migrations, Open Hearts, Open Borders' (2019) Otter Barry Books: Great Britain

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Archive research Into Area of Camberwell

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Archive research Into Area of Camberwell

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Fascinating look into the history of the area which now appears so differently. Important to understand an area before its current cultural place in London

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Alternative way of thinking about the term 'postcard'

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Alternative way of thinking about the term 'postcard'

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"teenagers from the London Borough of Newham made short films as part of a video project. Each participant produced a one-minute film, or 'video art postcard', informed by their learning."

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Tomas Gataveckas - Who Built This Video Arts Postcards

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Another 'Arts Postcard' using the term to mean short and static

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Another 'Arts Postcard' using the term to mean short and static

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Zohaib Thybuccus - Into The Light  Video Arts Postcards

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Marcus Ellsworth, 'Art as Activism' (2014) TEDxUTChattanooga 

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Thinking about normal people's everyday 'art'

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Thinking about normal people's everyday 'art'

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"Art can be found in the music, writing, and even the graffiti of Chattanooga’s most under-served populations. We can use art to engage in meaningful discussions and purposeful action to make Chattanooga better for everyone."

great way of approaching residency

interesting mindset around mundane objects and art

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Art as activism | Marcus Ellsworth | TEDxUTChattanooga

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Exhibition Documentary 'What is Mail Art? "Postcards to Brattleboro: 40 Years of Mail Art,"  (on view March 14 - October 12, 2020)

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Artists talking about postcards with a sense of importance along with objects of ephemera such as stamps etc. makes it feel like more of a subject of research

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A Brief History of Mail Art, from Cleopatra to Miranda July | Artsy

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From snail mail to digital messages, mail has served as a both a vehicle and medium for artists throughout history.

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What an amazing use of collage - the textures are transferred over digital collage as crisply as physical. I would love to achieve this level of nostalgia through simple mediums

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Opened by Customs 1937-8 is a collage made of paper, printed paper, oil paint and graphite by the German artist Kurt Schwitters. The pasted-together fragments have been cut and torn from a variety of sources, including parcel paper, Nazi administrative labels, a large section of printed Norwegian text from a book or a pamphlet, a blue label for Spanish oranges (stuck face down so that the logo is seen in reverse) and a printed list of travel-related words in German, including 'airline boarding pass', 'baggage insurance' and 'sleeper car'. At the bottom right of the collage is a piece of white paper featuring an insignia that bears the words ' Deutsche Arbeit '(German Work) set within a laurel wreath.

Opened by Customs was created in Lysaker, Norway, after Schwitters emigrated from Nazi Germany in 1937. Here he attempted to continue his Merzbau, or Cathedral of Erotic Misery, which he had begun in c.1923 in his apartment in Hanover. While living in Norway his work was exhibited in his homeland in the Nazi Degenerate Art exhibition. He left Norway for Britain in 1940 when Germany invaded the country. Schwitters's son Ernst chose the title of this work based on the customs labels at the top centre of the collage, which read ' Zollamtlich geöffnet ' ('Opened by customs') and are stamped 'Hannover 3.8.37'. As Ernst Schwitters explained in a letter dated 10 May 1973:

My father wanted certain parts of his Collages read and understood, intellectually, and he often made these the actual titles of his works. Usually, they were witty, ironical or even sarcastic.
(Quoted in Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, London 1981, p.676.)

The complex mesh of language and layers that comprise the work suggests a correspondingly complex web of ideas and emotions. The turmoil of the period (experienced by Schwitters as well as other German émigrés) is conveyed through the conflicting languages, both printed and handwritten, and the fierce red marks added using stamps, cut-outs and daubings. The titular German customs label, which takes a prominent position at the top left of the work, points to a lack of personal autonomy and compounds the sense that Schwitters is escaping ideological oppression. The lack of cohesion - the texts run in several different directions - may be indicative of the upheaval that both the artist and the continent were undergoing at this time.

During his career, Schwitters produced paintings, collages, sculptures and poems. He utilised elements of several styles, including cubist collage, dada and constructivism, and contributed to a number of publications, most notably Merz (1923-32). In 1919 Schwitters defined his practice of Merz as 'essentially the combination of all conceivable materials for artistic purposes' (quoted in Tate Britain 2013, p.6). Shortly before his death in 1948 he confirmed: 'a MERZ picture starts with the material, every possible material for painting and uses it as paint' (quoted in Tate Britain 2013, p.60). The consistency of ideas behind this inherently disruptive genre is typical of the contradictory nature of Schwitters's Merz works, in which, according to the curator Isabel Schulz, the collaged materials 'surrender their original function ... but not all semantic meaning' (Schulz 2011, p.52).

Another work in Tate's collection, Picture of Spatial Growths - Picture with Two Small Dogs 1920-39 (Tate ), which spans a long creative period in Schwitters's career, also consists of an assemblage of discarded ephemera from both Germany and Norway, constituting new meaning from their juxtapositions.

Further reading
Kurt Schwitters, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1985, reproduced no.162.
Isabel Schulz (ed.), Kurt Schwitters: Colour and Collage, exhibition catalogue, Menil Collection, Houston 2011.
Emma Chambers and Karin Orchard (eds.), Schwitters in Britain, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2013, reproduced p.88.

Hana Leaper
April 2016

Supported by Christie's.
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

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'Opened by Customs', Kurt Schwitters, 1937-8 | Tate

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'Opened by Customs', Kurt Schwitters, 1937-8

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How Many Postcards Are Mailed Each Year in the U.S. | UPrinting

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Postcards may have been around as early as the 1900s, but how often are they used in the Digital Age? In this article, we'll explore the annual volume of postcards mailed in the US and uncover the trends and patterns behind this timeless form of communication.

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Thinking about the history of my chosen medium through the ashmoleon museum. curation and looking at them as a collection.

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Postcards, as we are familiar with them today, have taken a considerable amount of time to develop. First restricted by size, color, and other regulations, postcard production blossomed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Postcards were popular because they were a quick and easy way for individuals to communicate with each other. Today deltiology, or the collection of postcards, is a popular hobby.

The following is a brief general history of the postcard in the United States. The dates for each time period are not concrete and different sources contain slightly variable dates. It is also important to keep in mind that postcard types produced in one period could also be produced in another, but were simply not produced in the same volume as other card types of the period.

PRE-POSTCARD PERIOD: 1848-1870

Before postcards, some people sent cards through the mail with attached postage. Because these cards are not actually postcards, they are typically referred to as "mailed cards." During this period, envelopes were produced with pictures on them, and some speculate that postcards are the direct descendants of the picture envelopes. While we do not have picture envelopes that date from this time period, this envelope with the Smithsonian Institution Building on it is similar to the earlier picture envelopes.

On February 27, 1861, the US Congress passed an act that allowed privately printed cards, weighing one ounce or under, to be sent in the mail. That same year John P. Charlton (other places seen as Carlton) copyrighted the first postcard in America.

PIONEER PERIOD: 1870-1898

In 1870, Hymen L. Lipman began reissuing Charlton's postcard under a new name: Lipman's Postal Cards. Congress passed legislation on June 8, 1872, that approved government production of postal cards. The first government-produced postcard was issued on May 1, 1873. One side of the postcard was for a message and the other side was for the recipient's address. By law, the government postcards were the only postcards allowed to bear the term "Postal Card." Private publishers were still allowed to print postcards, but they were more expensive to mail than the government-produced cards (2¢ instead of 1¢).

PRIVATE MAILING CARD PERIOD: 1898-1901

On May 19, 1898, Congress passed an act allowing private printing companies to produce postcards with the statement "Private Mailing Card, Authorized by Act of Congress of May 19, 1898." Private mailing cards now cost the same amount of money to mail as government-produced postcards: 1¢. The words "Private Mailing Card" distinguished privately printed cards from government printed cards. Messages were not allowed on the address side of the private mailing cards, as indicated by the words "This side is exclusively for the Address," or slight variations of this phrase. However, if the front of the postcard did not contain an image, it could bear a message. If the front did have an image, then a small space was left on the front for a message. Many of the private mailing cards, like the Castle postcard seen below, also contained the phrase "Postal Card-Carte Postale," which indicated that it was allowed to enter the international mail system.

POST CARD PERIOD: 1901-1907

In December 1901, the Postmaster-General issued Post Office Order No. 1447, which allowed the words "Post Card" instead of the longer "Private Mailing Card" on the back of postcards. Private printers were now also allowed to omit the line citing the 1898 Private Mailing Card Act. However, messages were still not allowed on the address side of postcards. By this time, the front of most postcards had images, which eliminated it as a space for messages. Because of the absence of message space on the address side of postcards, the Post Card Period is also known as the Undivided Back Period.

DIVIDED BACK PERIOD: 1907-1915

In 1907, a major change on the address side of postcards occurred. This change was prompted by the Universal Postal Congress, the legislative body of the Universal Postal Union. The convention decreed that postal cards produced by governments of member nations could have messages on the left half of the address side, effective October 1, 1907. The Universal Postal Congress also decreed that after March 1, 1907, government-produced cards in the United States could bear messages on the address side. Congress passed an act on March 1, 1907, in compliance with the Union's decree, allowing privately produced postcards to bear messages on the left half of the card's back. The next day, the Postmaster-General issued Order No. 146, granting privileges to privately produced postcards that were already granted in international mail, including the allowance of message space. On June 13, 1907, the Postmaster-General issued Order No. 539, which allowed government-produced postcards to bear messages on the left half of the address side. These changes to the backs of postcards ushered in the Divided Back Period, which spans from 1907 until 1915. The Divided Back Period is also known as the "Golden Age of Postcards," due to the vast popularity of postcards during this time period.

Another type of postcard that began to be produced and popularly used during the Divided Back period and through the White Border period is the "real photo" postcard. "Real photo" postcards were first produced using the Kodak "postcard camera." The postcard camera could take a picture and then print a postcard-size negative of the picture, complete with a divided back and place for postage.

WHITE BORDER PERIOD: 1915-1930

Throughout early postcard history, German printers dominated the market in postcard printing. However, with the beginning of World War I, American printers supplied most of the postcards in the United States. American printers did not have the same technology as German printers, so the quality of available postcards fell, and people lost interest in collecting them, effectively ending the "Golden Age" of postcards. Printers saved ink during this time by not printing to the edge of the card and leaving a white border around the image, giving the time period its name. Postcards from the White Border Period also had a description of the image on the message side, which retained the divided back.

LINEN PERIOD: 1930-1945

Beginning in the 1930s, new printing processes allowed printers to produce postcards with high rag content, which gave them a look of being printed on linen, rather than paper. The most notable printer of this period was Curt Teich & Co., which printed its first linen card in 1931, and whose postcards became popular around the world. Teich's process allowed for quicker production and brighter dyes to be used to color the images. Most postcards retained the white border, though some were printed to the edge of the card. The back remained divided and usually contained printed information about the image. The production of linen postcards eventually gave way to photochrom (or photochrome) postcards, which first appeared in 1939. However, linen cards continued to be produced for over a decade after the advent of photochrom postcards.

PHOTOCHROM PERIOD: 1945-PRESENT

Modern photochrom-style postcards first appeared in 1939 when the Union Oil Company began to carry them in their western service stations. Production of the postcards slowed during World War II because of supply shortages, but after the war, they dominated the postcard market. The photochrom postcards are in color, and their images closely resemble photographs. Photochrom postcards are the ones most familiar to us today. In the 1990s the advent of e-cards and email started the decline of the postcard's popularity. Today postcards are typically purchased as souvenirs, rather than a quick way to communicate.

Further Resources

"Evolution of the Smithsonian Postcard," Smithsonian Institution Archives.

"Dating Postcards," Smithsonian Institution Archives.

"Guide to Dating Curt Teich Postcards," (PDF) Curt Teich Archives, Lake County Forest Preserves.

"Wish You Were Here!: The Story of the Golden Age of Picture Postcards in the United States," Fred Bassett, New York State Library.

"Postal History," US Postal Service.

National Postal Museum.

Universal Postal Union.

Footnotes

Post-Office Department, Annual Reports for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1900. Report of the Postmaster-General. Miscellaneous Reports (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1900), 792.

Post-Office Department, Annual Reports for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1906. Report of the Postmaster-General. Miscellaneous Reports (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1906), 58, 313.

Post-Office Department, Annual Reports for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1907. Report of the Postmaster-General. Miscellaneous Reports (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1906), 297.

Photochrom is spelled without out the "e" according to the Library of Congress. However, it can be spelled several alternative ways including the English version of photochrome or the German version of Fotochrom. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/pgz/about.html.

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edan-image:id=siris_sic_13918,size=350,right] Postcards, as we are familiar with them today, have taken a considerable amount of time to develop. First restricted by size, color, and other regulations, postcard production blossomed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Postcards were popular because they were a quick and easy way for individuals to communicate with each other.

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Day two - A study of people walking past Crisis Camberwell

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Day two - A study of people walking past Crisis Camberwell

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Day two - A study of faces and words and conversations around Crisis Camberwell

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Day two - A study of faces and words and conversations around Crisis Camberwell

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"now hello"

"there aint nuffin"

"yeah not for me but it would look good on you! yeah"

"I'm tellin yous"

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When did you last send a postcard?

"not in a long time"

"I don't know addresses, I just text you know ahaha"

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Day two - questions and answers about postcards

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Day two - questions and answers about postcards

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Do you ever buy or use postcards?

"um no not really ahaha"

"They get very forgotten in this shop"

"What? What.. no thank you"

"If I see a nice design in a museum I will buy them for my wall"

"uhhh no not really"

"uhhh not since I was a kid no"

"If I am away for my family yes"

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Day two - my conversation with the shopkeeper in the charity shop

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Day two - my conversation with the shopkeeper in the charity shop

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"we get them inside a lot of books or boxes of other things"

"Sometimes its an envelope full of them, or cards, often old birthday cards and letters too"

"We try to keep any we think are old or valuable to collectors, and any with nice pictures on the front"

"We know people like the used ones too but any unused sell more"

"I take home some of the weirder ones ahaha"

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Notes on my time and little carbon paper sketches on the go

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Please click to zoom in! Some of the sights and sounds of Peckham and Camberwell. This was the beginning of my bolder use of colour through this project which I felt metched the vibrancy of this area.

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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The postcards I found in 'Crisis' in Camberwell

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Details of our one day residency in Ailsham Centre

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Details of our one day residency in Ailsham Centre

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Details of our one day residency in Ailsham Centre

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Details of our one day residency in Ailsham Centre

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Putting together our map of The Ailsham Centre

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Putting together our map of The Ailsham Centre

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Putting together our map of The Ailsham Centre

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Putting together our map of The Ailsham Centre

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Once at The Ailsham Centre, we were tasked with different things to observe and document. Mine was to speak to different people and ask them a simple question - I chose "What's your favourite colour" as it got people talking without feeling cornered. If someone seemed willing, I would then follow up with more complex questions such as 'What is your favourite time of year' or 'What are you looking forward to?"

Some people were willing to write it themselves - others were not

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I was tasked by Rose to document the paving stones on the floor as we walked to The Ailsham Centre. This can be seen on the left. I wanted it to feel almost like a boardgame journey as we took lots of twists and turns.

On the right is my documentation of the sounds I could hear at the corner of Peckham Rye. I love this piece as it has such organic lines and textures.

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When I came back and most of them were gone

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When I came back and most of them were gone