I discovered one of my favorite quotes years ago, "Postcards: The Haiku of Correspondence".
It was brought to my attention, belatedly, that I missed an important postal milestone. On Tuesday, postcards celebrated their 150th anniversary! Introduced as a way of sending a simple message, postcards quickly evolved beyond their practical purpose to become the universal souvenir that brightens everyone's mailboxes.
In Austria-Hungary, Dr. Emanuel Herrmann (a professor of Economics from Vienna) wrote an article in the Neue Freie Presse pointing out that the time and effort involved in writing a letter was out of proportion to the size of the message sent. He suggested that a more practical and cheaper method should be implemented for shorter, more efficient communications.
His recommendations impressed the Austrian Post, who put them to practice on October 1st 1869, resulting in the Correspondenz-Karte, a light-brown 8.5 x 12cm rectangle with space for the address on the front, and room for a short message on the back. The postcard featured an imprinted 2 Kreuzer stamp on top right corner, costing half the price of a normal letter. Gott sei Dank the postcard was born!
Postcards have certainly evolved over the years. I am a bit of a Deltiologist (one who studies and/or collects postcards) and do gather them from most places I visit. What an inexpensive reminder of where we've been and where we can look forward to returning to one day.
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