Biographical Note
Postcards as we know them today first began appearing in the 1870s, but saw their greatest period of popularity from 1900-1920. Following World War I, postcards predominately became a vehicle for tourism promotion. Postcards incorporated many different forms of graphic production processes that reflected contemporary trends in cultural expression, including photography, painting, etching, and other print forms; in general, they were outlets for experimenting with the burgeoning technology of graphic reproduction. Commercial photography, for instance, benefitted in particular from the postcard, offering a new outlet for photographers to distribute their work. In tandem with their appropriation of technological developments, postcards also served as a medium for advertising and promoting social, political, artistic, and cultural movements throughout history.