Antique Postcard Gallery
Collected by Jim Ross
Click here for Jim Ross’s essay about the history of postcards: “The Postal Origins of Text Messaging“.
Collector’s Note: After collecting antique postcards for nearly 60 years, I have a collection of over 60,000, representing all seven continents. Most come from North America and Europe, but on a per capita basis, Antarctica is most highly represented. My collecting interests have changed over the course of 60 years. Currently, I’m most interested in cards related to the Red Cross and to prisoners of war. When I started collecting in 1958, I insisted that any antique picture postcards I gathered had to be at least 50 years old. Because postcards with designated space for a message were still a recent innovation in 1908, my rule meant that few cards I collected bore messages. However, for every year that passed, my criterion glided forward a year. For example, by 1978 I was willing to collect postcards from as recently as 1928. Thus, over time, an increasing proportion of postcards in my collection carried messages.
I know I owe you a letter. For now, this postcard will have to do.
Nothing ales me, I’m just too boozy to write!
A prisoner of war writes under the pines
Children write postcards around the world – 1900
Special wartime post office, overwhelmed
Wifey writes home to tell Hubby she’s bearing up okay