Postcard

A postcard, or post card, is a mailing piece on card stock. These are generally picture postcards, cards with an image on one side with a space for a message and address on the back. This is different from a postal card, an item of postal stationery sold by post offices that predated postcards by years.

Picture postcards began in the 1870s perhaps alongside the rise of travel and international expositions. Printing of souvenir items including picture postcards took off after the US 1983 Columbian Exhibition. This extended to holiday greeting cards, novelty picture cards, and on and on. You will find tourists traps of the era full of shops selling postcards. This also started a collecting hobby, explaining the large number of unused postcards from this time still readily available today.

See

 * Postal card, postal stationery
 * Real photo postcard
 * Chicago Postcard Museum site
 * , a group for the exchange of postcards

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