Postcards may have up to four different names printed on them or sometimes none at all. They are most often found on the card’s back, though they may appear on a front tab or even across the image. In place of a name, a logo is often substituted.
Who are these people? Sometimes we use guesswork to identify the references found on postcards. The most common name on a postcard is that of the publisher who commissions the postcard and supplies the image. The next likely name to be found is that of the printer who manufactured the card. Other names found may include the distributor who placed the cards in retail outlets, the photographer who supplied the initial photographic image or the artists’ name if the card reproduces artwork. Often a single company performed more than one of these roles.
A number of factors can lead to confusion when trying to glean information off a postcard. Few cards were copyrighted. When a copyright and date does appear, it is usually for the photograph, not the postcard. The copyright date and the printing date usually do not match and could be decades apart. Large publishers, in search of images, often bought out the stock of photographers without giving any credit to them. Even photographers who bought the photo inventory of another photographer, would often publish those images with their own name on them. Because of this trade practice, we sometimes find two different cards with the same image being credited to two different photographers. More often than not, no one knew where an image came from.
Sometimes a card may have a distinct look of a well known publisher but that publisher's name will not appear on the card. These cards were often privately contracted by individuals, but it may have been through the recognized publisher or directly with the same printer that the large publisher used. While some publishers printed their own cards, others contracted this work out with a variety of printers, and consequently their cards may have many different looks. Because of the way postcards were manufactured any five and dime store could become a publisher. Sometimes a local printer produced just a few different cards for a local store . While the facts concerning some postcard companies are well known, they remain a mystery for other companies. It should also be noted that many cards were published with no information about their sources.
HOW POSTCARDS WERE MADE AND THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THEM
Postcards were manufactured in a variety of ways, some of which differed over time. Listed below are the major players in postcard production and their typical roles during the Golden Age. The process of creating a postcard took anywhere between two weeks and four months to complete.
Salesman - Printers and distributors both had salesmen working for them who would search out retail outlets for their cards; but in addition there were also independents who played a different role. Independent salesmen would often contact the same retail outlets, discuss an image they might want, and then make arrangements with a printer to have a card made. Not tied to any company, independent salesmen could search out the highest quality or lowest bid, depending on their clients' needs. Salesmen basically acted as middleman, employed to facilitate card production between a would be publisher and the potential printer.
Publisher - All cards start with a publisher’s intent to produce a postcard. First an image must be chosen. For view-cards a regular 5 by 7 inch photograph was usually required. Larger photographs were used but smaller ones were problematic. Even the image for an art card would be photographed, unless made directly from an artist’s etching plate or woodblock but this is rare. The next step was to send the photo to a printer and sign a contract to print a given number of cards for a set price. Printers required a minimum order of 500 to 8000 cards to create an economically feasible press run. This number was often determined by the type of press that would be utilized. When high-speed presses arrived, 25,000 cards would sometimes be printed at a time, but this was not applicable to all techniques. Since almost all postcards were made from black & white photos the publisher would have to specify the colors desired on the card. Many times the printer would just make them up. A number of the larger publishers were also printers.
So who were the publishers? They can be classified into four main categories. While individuals sometimes printed cards, this was rare but it was sometimes done for family use, similar to printing personalized note paper. Photographers were usually the only individuals who printed cards in small numbers. As postcards gained in popularity at the turn of the 20th century, the postcard format supplanted previous forms of popular photography. It was practically required for any commercial photographer to produce postcards to stay in business. Many not only published real photo cards, but their images were often turned into printed photo cards as well.
Publisher - All cards start with a publisher’s intent to produce a postcard. First an image must be chosen. For view-cards a regular 5 by 7 inch photograph was usually required. Larger photographs were used but smaller ones were problematic. Even the image for an art card would be photographed, unless made directly from an artist’s etching plate or woodblock but this is rare. The next step was to send the photo to a printer and sign a contract to print a given number of cards for a set price. Printers required a minimum order of 500 to 8000 cards to create an economically feasible press run. This number was often determined by the type of press that would be utilized. When high-speed presses arrived, 25,000 cards would sometimes be printed at a time, but this was not applicable to all techniques. Since almost all postcards were made from black & white photos the publisher would have to specify the colors desired on the card. Many times the printer would just make them up. A number of the larger publishers were also printers.
So who were the publishers? They can be classified into four main categories. While individuals sometimes printed cards, this was rare but it was sometimes done for family use, similar to printing personalized note paper. Photographers were usually the only individuals who printed cards in small numbers. As postcards gained in popularity at the turn of the 20th century, the postcard format supplanted previous forms of popular photography. It was practically required for any commercial photographer to produce postcards to stay in business. Many not only published real photo cards, but their images were often turned into printed photo cards as well.
