Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
January 3, 1988
By David M. Buchanan
Vigo County Historical Society
Postcards began as less colorful notes
Today, the custom of letter writing is a far cry from that of our ancestors of a little more than 120 years ago. Back then written correspondence could be very expensive and time consuming. The cost of pen and ink, stationery, sealing wax and postage, plus the amount of written information custom required in letters brought a call for a cheaper and easier method of communication. The postcard answered the call.
The first person to suggest the creation of the postcard was Heinrich von Stephan of Germany. Almost simultaneously, Dr. Emmanuel Hermann, also from Germany, suggested a similar concept. The first government-approved, pre-stamped postcard was issued in Germany in 1869. The United States didn’t approve pre-stamped postcards until June 1872 though privately printed (and needing stamps) postcards had been available since the early 1860s
The first postcards didn’t have pictures on them, just an area for the address and stamp on one side and the written message on the other. But within a few years of their approval, postcards began to be decorated with copies of art work, original lithographs, cartoons, views of hometowns and holiday greetings. In fact, anything that could be recorded by drawing or camera stood a chance of being a postcard.
Postcards were then, as now, considered collector’s items. If you were traveling you were expected to send them to family and friends. Each card was stored in an album and then brought out for visitors and family to admire. The more exotic decorative the cards, the better the collection.
The Vigo County Historical Society has a large number of postcards, including more than 130 that relate to Terre Haute and Vigo County. Such cards were called view cards and were very popular. The scenes on the cards range from local buildings, some of which have long vanished, to scenes of the Dupont powder mill explosion in Fontanet. Some of the cards show night scenes in downtown Terre Haute. In these cards, almost every window in every building is lighted with a welcoming yellow light.
A large number of the cards were colored by hand. Local photographers would send pictures to postcard manufacturers. Once the cards were produced, they were sent to another factory, often in Germany, where each was tinted by hand. Because the persons doing the coloring had no idea what colors actually were on the local buildings, some postcards showed structures in markedly different colors.
Unlike modern postcards, early ones came in a variety of sizes and materials. Some looked like the human foot, others folded in a variety of shapes. Some were made from paper; some were made from wood. They could be found in celluloid or bamboo. Some were made from tree bark.
The collection in the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley includes one made of leather showing a young lady in her Sunday best sitting on the bank of a river with fishing pole in hand. The words over her hear read, “Come on over and fish at Terre Haute.”
Many times businesses sent out postcards as a form of advertisement. One of the society’s postcards shows the shoe department of the long-vanished Herz Store on Wabash Avenue. Another depicts the Terre Haute Brewing Co. Others are of the finer hotels in the city.
Salesman would send postcards to their prospective customers telling them they planned to visit. One such card showed a man in a cart with a runaway horse and his sample goods flying off the back. The printed message was this: “Even if I should miss the train I will surely be in to see you on or about . . .”
Though many of the cards were photographed locally, others were produced by distant manufacturers who left a blank space for the community’s name. One such card shows a caricature of a Dutch girl standing next to a red pennant. The card reads, “I vill be tickled to see you in Terre Haute undt show you the time of your life.” Terre Haute is printed (rather off center) on the centralized red pennant. The message on the back of the card doesn’t quite match that of the front. The sender was trying to help locate someone’s grave.
Most of the postcards produced from the 1880s until the 1920s were sent to be added to a collection. And almost all of these postcards still appeal to collectors today. Postcard collecting had become a big enough hobby that there even is an association for postcard collectors: the International Postcard Collectors Association Inc., 6380 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 907, Lost Angeles, Calif. 90048.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.