Family Postcard (c1909)

In the early 20th century, it was popular to send postcards to friends and family. It was a way to maintain a connection, as well as share small bits of information. Originally, postcards cost two cents, like regular letters, but after much pressure, the government lowered the price to one cent, the same as government postcards. People collected them in albums, both the postcards they bought, and the ones sent to them and displayed them in parlors for visitors to peruse and enjoy. Their peak of popularity was from 1905 until 1915 when World War I ended the hobby.

They could have a variety of images on the front. Some were location-specific, showing popular tourist destinations of cities or the building where the postcard was sold. Hotels would sell postcards, along with museums. Others were of a more personal nature.

By this time, photography was no longer restricted to studios but instead made readily available to the world. It was now much cheaper to obtain a photograph, and much more convenient. Rather than sitting stock-still for minutes at a time in a studio, it took only a few moments in the comfort of one's home, and it became popular to photograph one's family. People captured joyous and momentous moments, as well as the mundane. With these photos made into postcards, it was easy to share news of one's life with friends. It is remarkably similar to the current tradition of Christmas and New Year's cards, with a photo of the family on one side and a few sentences of news on the other.

The postcard featured here was sent in 1909, during the hey-day of postcards. It is, by all accounts, mundane. It depicts a family on the front, with news of the father's passing and the mother's frail health on the back. Other postcards found in the University of Southern Mississippi's Special Collections filled similar roles - sharing news of new additions or losses with photographs, such as infants photographed in their baptismal gowns. Sending a postcard was, in a way, the precursor to text messaging. It was cheap, quick, and low effort. Along with this, the mail service was remarkably efficient. Postcards often reached their destination within a few days, sometimes even less time than that. Despite, or perhaps because of, their efficiency, the postcards were critiqued by people who clung to tradition. The messages on postcards were full of abbreviations and slang, scandalizing those who preferred the traditional art of letter writing.

Unfortunately, like all trends, the popularity of postcards ended. There was no time for a frivolous collection of postcards with a war raging, and by the time the war was over, technology had moved on. Telephones eclipsed postcards as people's preferred methods of rapid communication, and with that, the art of the postcard faded from a hallmark of progress to a symbol of tourism. Today, postcards are seen as kitschy. It is possible, however, that postcards will have a renaissance. Trends move in cycles, and people are becoming increasingly aware of our reliance on technology. Perhaps the solution to modern questions of communication and connection lies in the humble postcard.

Created by Georgia Campbell, sophomore, Library and Information Science major.

**Items of the Month featured in 2022 and part of 2024 will be the work of Southern Miss students who took HON 303, a seminar held in Fall 2022 focusing on archives and special collections.

Sources Consulted:

Bassett, Fred. "Postcard Collection - Appendix C Wish You Were Here!: The Story of the Golden Age of Picture Postcards in the United States." New York State Library, https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/qc16510ess.htm.

Gifford, Daniel. "Golden Age of Postcards." Saturday Evening Post, vol. 288, no. 6, Nov. 2016, p. 52. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brb&AN=119183765&site=ehost-live.

People-Unidentified: Baby (3 1/2 Months) Photograph, Postcard Collection, M36-1369, Box 5, Historical Manuscripts, Special Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries.

"Postcard History." Smithsonian Institution Archives, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 19 Sept. 2013, https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/postcard/postcard-history.

Williams, Val. "Back to Basic Families." Women's Art Magazine, no. 57, Mar. 1994, pp. 4–6. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=vth&AN=35067352&site=ehost-live.