Postcards


Postcards.	Above:Ivy Benham sent this card from Port Germein to Miss S. Murray at Strathalbyn on 13 March 1907.

The picture postcard evolved from the earlier postal card which was originally intended for the transmission of written messages only. Many factors influenced the development of the postcard from the simple printed card of the 1870s through to the picture postcard which reached its peak of popularity in Australia between the early 1900s to World War I. By the turn of the century most people were able to read, write and express themselves, annual holidays were becoming more common, a growing public transport system had given birth to the tourism industry, Federation brought uniform postal regulations, and reduced postage rates for postcards also played a part.

Until January 1905 regulations reserved the ‘face’ side of the card for the address and the stamp, and allowed the other side to be shared by the written message and the picture. While the postal authorities in some States had produced postcards with illustrations and pictures in the 1890s, the earliest known privately published Australian picture postcards were produced by an Adelaide photographer, Ernest Ziegler (q.v.), who patented seven different black and white half-tone vignettes of Adelaide in May 1898.

In 1905 the postal regulations were changed to allow what has become known as the ‘divided back’, where one side of the card was shared by the message and the address, leaving the other side free for a full-size picture. A vertical line was ruled down the centre of the card and printed instructions clearly indicated correspondence to the left, address to the right. A rectangle was printed at the top right-hand corner of some cards to indicate the position for the stamp.

In November 1905 the Gawler Bunyip office advertised its Gawler Picture Postcard series, one dozen ‘beautifully collotyped’ postcards for one penny each, while at the same time S.H. McMillan, the local chemist and member of the Gawler Camera Club, was advertising ‘Learn how to do your own picture postcards for Xmas.’ He also had a range of cameras and photographic supplies available, with ‘all solutions made up fresh.’

On 4 January 1907 the Clare Northern Argus said, ‘The postcard craze grows apace. When anyone goes on a trip, postcards must be sent to friends at home from all the places visited. A. Hebb, in the Windsor Magazine, protests in verse against the imposition. The poem, he says, is to be sung to the tune of "Violets," and runs as follows :–

Every day I send thee postcards,
Which for pennies I have bought,
Just to fill your wretched album,
I’ve no time for other thought.

I’ve no time to climb the mountains,
Visit churches, see the sights,
All the days I hunt thee postcards,
Which I post to thee at nights.

Know’st thou what these horrid pictures,
Could they speak for me, would say?
They would wish for thee the nightmare
They have been to me by day.’

A few weeks later the Argus reported that an exhibition of picture postcards had been held in St Barnabas’ Schoolroom in and that prizes had been awarded for the best collections of various kinds of cards.

Marchants Studio at Gawler often received postcards in the mail which contained repeat orders from customers. Some of the messages the studio received (complete with spelling errors) were :-

"Sir, – Could you make me another half doz. of post cards as I was very satisfied with them. Please let me know when you will have them done. I do hope I will be able to get them. Would like to have them by next week. Mrs J. Kleemann, Rowland’s Flat."

"Dear Sir.– I want you to send me three painted photo post cards the same as I had before I want them done very nice please send them to Moonta by next Monday. Jacob Constintinie." (Posted from Moonta in 1907)

"Dear Sir – As I have now been waiting a Considerable time for My enlargements and P. Cards & haven’t received them yet & hoping that they will be on post by Wednesday night if they should not then let me know for I wished to have them long ago. Yours truly, Florrie Zimmermann." (Dated Daveyston, Oct. 13th. 1908.)

"Dear Sir – Have you recieved that oder for the PC if they are finished please send them and let me know to what it comes with Postage and then I will send you the money. Yours Faithfully, Lydia Boerth." (Postmarked Lobethal, 26 October 1909).

In 1907 retailers and collectors could obtain one thousand assorted postcards of Scotch, English and Irish views, actresses, songs, animals, lovers and comic cards by sending a money order direct to the Britannia Postcard Co. in Glasgow, Scotland. Hand tinted, glossy real photographs of English and Continental actresses were 15s. per gross.

The following poem by an unknown poet was also published in the Northern Argus, on 16 November 1906.

If you’re going on a journey to the mountains or the coast,
Send a post card.
If you’re torn away by duty from the one you love the most,
Send a post card.

If you aimlessly awander through the country here and there,
Seeking pleasure, seeking money, seeking muscle, seeking air
Keep a list of all the friends that you have cherished everywhere –
Send a post card.

If you’re sitting on a jury, if you must defend a trial,
Send a post card.
If you’re touring the Blue Mountains, or up Australia’s Nile,
Send a post card.

If you’ve got a message write it, drop a line from day to day;
Send the little post-card picture if you’ve not a word to say;
Think of blonde and think of brunette, think of sad and think of gay –
Send a post card.

Though its gay and you are gloomy, though its glad and you are grim,
Send a post card.
If you want to tell your enemy just what you think of him,
Send a post card.

You will find the habit growing, till from every side the call
Will resound, though you be dining, dancing, sitting in a hall,
At a funeral or a wedding – it’s the word that grips them all –
"Send a post card."

According to one authority on postcards, South Australia was ‘the home of some of the highest quality scenic cards in Australia, with many excellent printings done by local firms.’ Most of the South Australian cards were produced by one of three processes. Two used printer’s ink and were permanent images, collotype and half-tone, whereas the third process was the real photograph using a gelatine emulsion whose degree of permanence varied with the amount of care taken in its processing.

Although the artist's choice of subject may have changed, photographs and photographers still find a place on modern postcards. These cards are from the Bamforth & Co. "Comic" series, No. 2073 at right, and No. 2292 below, illustrations by "Taylor.".