Montana Historical Society

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope and at a lower rate than a letter. The term Postcard refers to cards which were privately produced and were not sold with postage prepaid. Postcards are visual representations of people and places specific to a particular time, providing a record of changes in geography, graphic and artwork styles, social interests, and social concerns.

Deltiology, or postcard collecting, has been a popular hobby since the late nineteenth century. Germany's Heinrich von Stephan invented the concept of the postal card in 1865, and by 1870 postcards were being privately produced in the United States. The issuance of commemorative postcards at Chicago's World Columbian Exhibition (1893) followed by an act of Congress that allowed cards created by private publishers to be mailed at the same rate as government cards (1898) caused an increase in the production and collection of postcards in the United States.

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