In 1861, John Charlton of Philadelphia obtained the first copyright on privately produced postcards which he transferred to HL Lipman. The first “Lipman Postal card” was postmarked October 28, 1870 and required letter-rate postage.
In 1898 – congress passed an act approving a special rate for postcards, one cent, which was the same rate as used for cards issued by the Post Office Department.
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| A Lippman private postcard |
Originally, the picture and a space for a message appeared on the same side of the card, with the entire flip side used for the address. This changed in 1907 with the first card issued with a picture on one side, with sections for the message and address on the other. That is the design that is still used today.
As early as 1900, businesses began using postcards to advertise products and services.
Do you still use postcards?
4 comments:
I use postcards all the time, probably more than most everyone in the US, but not as much as the Finns! They are number one for most postcards sent via Postcrossing.com I'm currently #1 in US (as Zmrzlina) for the most sent. Over 2,000 in 5 years, but that's only a bit of a representation of what I send because of my own postcard project and other mail enthusiast sites.
I also now use Postcrossing.com but have only sent about 20 in the 2 months i have been on it. I plan to send a whole lot more because I love getting postcards from around the world!! I learned about Postcrossing.com on this blog and Thank You!
I am another big fan of postcrossing.com. Thanks Benny for sharing the information about this program. I too love sending and getting postcards from all over the world. Some day maybe I'll even be able to travel to some of the places.
I joined Postcrossing, also, as a result of this blog, but have not yet sent or received any postcards through it. I do like postcards and send them from time to time. One year, I have old-fashioned postcard Christmas cards, and they were a big hit!
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