How to date a picture or post card
Our photo collection has a number of photographs and postcards that are
undated. Even if a postcard has a postmark or someone has written a date on
the back of the photo, the date the picture was taken may be unknown.
One way to put an approximate date to it is to know when a building pictured
was built. One example is if you see one before the false western fronts
were on the buildings in Glen Haven you know it was taken before 1959.
If it had false fronts, then it was after 1959.
1915-1917 was written on back of this post card. Right now this is the
best guess.
1940 was written on the back of this one. The Knapp's Ranchhouse (now the
lawn of the Inn) was removed and the Community Building next to the General
Store was built in 1941.
This one is hard to date - maybe 1960s. Duke has one sent to him
postmarked 1979. Note the cars.
Duke took this in 1989. Notice that the Horseshoe Cafe still there.
It burned in Dec. 1991.
This one must be after 1992 when the present Post Office was built.
Picture Postcards in the United States
History and Terminology
PIONEER ERA (1893 - 1898). Although there were
earlier scattered issues, pioneer cards truly began with those placed on sale at
the Columbian exposition on May 1, 1893. There were privately printed
souvenir cards and also illustrations printed on government postal cards.
The privately printed cards required a 2c adhesive postage stamp while the
government postals were 1c. Messages were not permitted on the address
side of the cards.
PRIVATE MAILING CARD ERA (1898 - 1901). On
May 19 1898, private printers were granted permission, by and Act of Congress,
to print postcards inscribed "Private Mailing Card." Although messages
were still not permitted on the address side, the postage required was now 1c,
the same as for government postal cards.
POSTCARD ERA (1901 - 1907).
also called "Undivided Back Era." Permission to use the words "Post
Card" was granted by the government on Decmenber 24, 1901 to private printers,
but written messages were still not allowed on the address side. The
postcard craze mushroomed and hundreds of publishers printed many millions of
cards. Many American publishers sent their material to Germany to be
printed.
DIVIDED BACK ERA (1907 - 1914). Postcards
with a divided back were permitted after March1, 1907 the address to be written
on the right and the message on the left. Because of high tariffs and the
beginning of World War I, imports from Germany ceased and by early 1915, most of
our postcards were printed in England and the United States. This ended
the era of the beautiful cards from Germany.
WHITE BORDER ERA (1915 - 1930). During this
period, most of our cards were produced in the United States, with high labor
costs and changing public tastes contributing to the production of poorer qality
crds. To save ink costs, a white border was left around the edge of most
cares. High competition in a slower market caused many postcard printers
to shut down. In spited of the poor quality, these cards record many
important social and historical events.
LINEN ERA (1930 - 1944). New printing
processes allowed printers to issue cards with a high reag content (linen
textured) that would accept cheaper gaudy dyes in place of inks. These
cards also recorded important events of the period
CHROME ERA (1945 - present). Chrome
postcards (short for Chromolightographs) began to dominate the market shortly
after they were launched by the Union Oil Company through their service stations
in 1939. Other publishers followed suit, and linen cards soon disappeared.
These shiny-surfaced cards are mass produced by tehnical high-color reproduction
methods in two major sizes:"standard," which is approximately 3 1/2 by 5 1/2
inches, and "continental," so-called because they first appeared in Europe,
approximately 4 by 6 inches.
The hobby of collecting old postcards is called
deltiology.
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