Collecting Vintage Postcards

[Brian Sheridan]

I have become fascinated by vintage Hollywood postcards. You can find them very cheaply. They show movie stars homes, or streets and buildings in Hollywood, all in their Golden Age prime.

Does anyone here collect them? How do you preserve/display them?

 

[Foofoogal]

I started as a collector of postcards. I especially love Art Deco ones.
Store in acid free paper, keep out of sun and don't use PVC based sleeves.
Can frame them again with acid free background.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

I should have added: What is the appeal of postcards for you?

 

[Foofoogal]

I like the graphics and they are like little works of Art. I started collecting at 12 and my brother was in the service and lived in Germany. He traveled quite a bit and sent them to me. I even have some from Israel with little piece of a rock and an olive leaf.

 

[imoldfashioned]

I collected avidly at one time, mostly holiday or royalty postcards from the turn of the last century. I love the colors, the graphics, and often the humor. If I had been seeking employment around 1900 I think postcard artist would have been high on my list of great jobs.

 

[16_sparrows]

You may want to check out the Chicago Postcard Museum. It is an online museum of a really great collection of postcards. The owner of the collection only has a small percent up, but he is updating frequently.

 

[Vintage Betty]

I was working on a project with a graphic artist friend and purchased two shoe boxes of vintage postcards in damaged condition (we didn't care about the condition of the postcards for the project she had in mind). They are mostly holiday and flowers, if memory serves me correctly.

I have a few other postcards I've collected over the years, but they have been an extremely narrow focus of subject matter; and therefore there's not tons of the subject matter on the market.

At some point, I'll get my shoeboxes back from her and will post some images for people to enjoy.

Vintage Betty

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Does it matter if they are used or not? Is it better to read about someone's life or just to look at the nice picture on the flip side?

Anyone have any with unusual messages?

 

[leaette]

i have about 15 of them from my town mostly from the 40s. i like looking at them to see how things have changed, especially the downtown area.

haven't displayed them yet though. would love to find a big frame that will fit a ton of them on there with a nice mat.

 

[Decobelle]

As a teenager I collected Edwardian postcards and displayed my favorites of the week in a fishnet hung on the wall.

I got the idea from a c.1910 postcard view of these college fellows

I chose them for the artwork, but also could not resist an interesting message. I have some dillys. I sort of got out of collecting them, so don’t have too many from the 30s-40s, just some humorous WWII ones and a few pinup cards. I also enjoy seeing the color city views. A friend & went through the postcard collection of our local archives a few years ago, looking for one of a particular street corner - he had a huge neon clock that had once hung on that corner; he wanted to restore it but couldn’t remember what color the neon was.

I like this ‘Penny Postcards’ website; they have many from L.A and Hollywood: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/special/ppcs/ppcs.html

 

[Vintage Betty]

Does it matter if they are used or not? Is it better to read about someone's life or just to look at the nice picture on the flip side?

Anyone have any with unusual messages?

Since I have a wide range of focus' I just purchase occasional items I enjoy, otherwise I'd get sucked into collecting yet another item with verocity!

I like both personal and blank postcards. I think it depends on the card, era, stamp, etc. The personal touch is great to enhance a postcard, but if I'm buying it for artistic reasons, I'm less inclined to be interested in the back.

The most unusual message that I currently have possession of is a postcard which belongs to my father with one of those cut and set in photos from my grandfather during the World War. In the postcard, he writes how he doesn't expect to see my Great -Grandmother again and how much he loves her. It's truly touching.

I'd be very interested to read what others think of these questions.

 

[deadpandiva]

I have a few of the celebrity photo postcards. They are just head shots. I think they were manufactured in England. I have alot of the cards and postcards that the studios mailed out when they received autograph requests. I gave my sister a Lauren Bacall one from the early fourties with the original envelope.

 

[imoldfashioned]

As a collector I'm kind of partial to the blank backed cards, but the vintage geek in me loves to eavesdrop on the conversations of folks 100 years ago.

Many of my cards have very mundane messages like "I'm coming over for dinner tonight" or "Grandma says she's having a nice visit" in a town that is less than 10 miles away (according to the postmarks). It just points up how postcards were sometimes used as a poor man's telephone in the days of multiple daily mail deliveries.

One of my favorite messages is on a pc of Princess Mary (daughter of George V of England) where the author writes about seeing her and how she's much prettier in person!

 

[Vintage Betty]

I found both boxes of postcards. I will post some postcards when I have some free time.

Vintage Betty

 

[Jay]

I started looking for postcards after I heard about one featuring the "West Jersey Bridge," a structure never actually built. http://www.fortleeonline.com/neverwas.html

Never did find one though, but I got a couple that are neat along the way. Mostly hotels on Ocean Drive in Miami. I think I still have them somewhere. I'll have to check.