Saturday, March 10, 2007

How old is my postcard? Part 7 The White Border Era

Welcome to Moody's Postcards, your source for vintage, collectible postcards! My name is Richard Moody and I started the company in 1986 and we have been accumulating "old" (otherwise known as "vintage collectible") postcards for twenty years. We specialize in United States view postcards but we also have thousands of antique foreign views, topical postcards and trade cards. Our goal is to exceed your expectations and provide a superior selection of the collectible postcard you are searching for.

The fifth postcard era is called the White Border Era since a common trait of these cards was a white border around the image. This era began after World War I ended the "Golden Age of Postcards" and ran from 1915 to 1930. World War I in Europe ended access to the high quality printers in Germany and the rest of Europe and American publishers fired up their presses to fill the void. American technology enabled printers to produce quality cards but the competition was so fierce that many publishers cut the quality to keep their prices competitive. Holiday, seasonal and greeting cards declined during this period but view cards remained in demand. It should be noted that some white border cards were seen before 1915 but they were not the norm. Below are two examples from Moody's Postcards that illustrate postcards of this era. The first is a circa 1915 Alabama postcard showing downtown Selma.

The second is a circa 1915 Georgia postcard showing a downtown Marietta street full of horse drawn wagons with bales of cotton.

Next time we will move into the Linen era.