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Old Photos & Pictures Of The United Kingdom |
This site has a growing collection of historical photos, old
pictures and vintage postcards of England, Scotland, Wales,
Isle of Man
and the Channel Islands.
The images include historic landmarks, cities, towns and villages in the
United Kingdom of Great Britain. |
A brief history of the postcard |
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A brief history of the postcard
The world's first postcard was introduced in Austria in 1869, and it was the next year 1870 when the first postcards were introduced into Britain by the Post Office, at first these plain cards were only for use in Britain.
It was not until 1875 that Britain issued a post card for use abroad and in 1894 the Post Office allowed others to publish postcards.
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| Plain Postcard - 1890 |
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Britain was the first country to introduce divided back cards in 1902 allowing senders to put an address and a message on one side of the card, previously only address and postal information was allowed on the address side, and any illustration had to share space with the message on the other side
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| postcard undivided back - 1901 |
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1902 - 1914 was probably the Golden Age for the postcard a time before the telephone was in nearly every ones home and before cameras were commonplace, a postcard with a professionally taken photograph or an artistic illustration could be sent around the world with a "wish you were here" message for the cost of a postage stamp.
So many of these wonderful cards have survived that they are still affordable and a collection can be started for very little money you have only to look at the vast quantities for sale on eBay.
If you are thinking of starting a collection or would like to find out more about postcards a book I have found very useful is Picture Postcard Values.
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| Topographical Postcard |
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