Happy World Postcard Day!

Oct 1, 2023
4 min read

Happy World Postcard Day fellow Postcrossing members and Snail Mail enthusiasts!

Today is the 154th annual World Postcard Day!

What is World Postcard Day you might be asking? Well, WPD happens every year on October 1st! Many people across the world take time out of their day to lay out postage stamps and postcards and sent them all over. Its just as simple as that!

Postcards became officially recognized by postal operators on October 1st 1869. The evolution of postcards as we know today started in the 17th century when printing presses began to gain popularity. This started when various forms of paper ephemera started to have illustrations, designs and engravings. In 1777 a French engraver by the name of Demaison published a sheet of greeting cards with a display of Paris. This was not widely accepted initially as there was a fear of a lack of privacy with the message.

This is the one of the first known versions of the postcard printed by Demaison of France in 1777

In May of 1840 the first adhesive postage stamp (titled "Penny Black") was being released to the public; this is when the United Kingdom implemented the cost of mail delivery. At the time it cost 1 cent to send an envelope domestically.

"Penny Black" The first adhesive stamp to be issued in the UK in 1840

As the first postage stamp was being released the UK post office also released prepaid "letter sheets". This was the first ever piece of stationary to be issued by a post office. This design was quite unpopular with the public and was later replaced with the "Mulready Cover"

Prepaid letter sheet

The Mulready Cover was the first prepaid envelope to be produced, featuring the art of William Mulready; an Irish painter born in 1786. Mulready covers became a romanticized view of affordable mail

Mulready cover featuring a wax seal and a postage mark from Bath UK

On Febuary 27th 1861 the United States Congress passed an act allowing privately printed cards with a weight one ounce or less to be sent through the mail. Later this same year John P Charlton painted and copyrighted the first postcard in America, the right to this postcard was then sold to Hymen Lipman who also founded the first envelope company and invented the led pencil and eraser. These cards were known as the "Lipman Postal Cards". These cards were well known but soon lost their popularity due to the Civil war that started only a month after its release.

Lipman postal card designed by John P Charlton

On October 1st Dr. Emanuel Herrmann published an article pointing out the issues he saw with sending these cards. His main concerns were the time and effort it took to send a letter in this form was inadequate to the size of the message being sent. He proposed that a cheaper and more simple method be implemented. This concept was well received by the Austrian post and thus was born the Correspondenz-Karte (Correspondence card); a small card with space on the front for an address and a message on the back for only half of the original cost! This is when postcards became official!

Correspondenz-Karte (Correspondence card)

Letter to the members of the Union from General Postal Union in Bern Switzerland

Translated from German to English using Google Translate for images

From there on postcards transformed into what we know them to be today; typically an image on the front of something fun, interesting; a piece of art or a city view. The right half of back side left a space for the address and the left half was utilized for writing a message. This was normalized in the UK in 1902.

Billions and billions of postcards and postcard variant's have been sent around the world in the past 154 years. On July 14th 2005 the website Postcrossing was born. In an age of digital technology and correspondence; writing letters and postcards are soon becoming a lost form of communication. Postcrossing allows you to send a set number of postcards to random strangers around the world to keep this wonderful form of communication alive. In return you will also receive postcards from strangers based on how many you have sent out. This is a great way to get some postal love in your mail box rather than plain old bills and advertisements. You can sign up here!

Worldpostcardday.com is an extension of postcrossing.com made by Postcrossing. Here you can keep up to date on events, dates official cards and learn lots of history! Each year an art contest is held to officiate each years official WPD Postcard.