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99-447: In some places, one can send a postcard for a lower fee than a letter . Stamp collectors distinguish between postcards (which require a postage stamp ) and postal cards (which have the postage pre-printed on them). While a postcard is usually printed and sold by a private company, individual or organization, a postal card is issued by the relevant postal authority (often with pre-printed postage). Production of postcards blossomed in

198-595: A depression in the 1890s . Still, the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 excited many attendees with its line of "Official Souvenir" postals, which popularized the idea of picture postcards. The stage was now set for private postcard industry to boom, which it did once the United States government changed the postage rate for private cards from two cents to one in May 1898. Spanning from approximately 1905 to 1915 in

297-457: A self-addressed stamped envelope , allowing one to receive a reply without burdening the addressee with postage fees. Return postcards consist of a single double-size sheet, and cost double the price of a usual postcard – one addresses and writes one half as a usual postcard, writes one's own address on the return card, leaving the other side blank for the reply, then folds and sends. Return postcards are most frequently encountered by non-Japanese in

396-400: A few options including free, government-issued field postcards, cheap, picture postcards, and embroidered cards meant as keepsakes. Unfortunately, censors often disapproved of picture postcards. In one case, French censors reviewed 23,000 letters and destroyed only 156 (although 149 of those were illustrated postcards). Censors in all warring countries also filtered out propaganda that disparaged

495-638: A group of survivors returned to the city and maintained a small community until it was dissolved during the 1970s. Nevertheless, due to Jewish emigration from the former USSR to Germany in the 1990s, a community of about 340 people is now maintaining its own synagogue, cemetery and other facilities. The old Jewish cemetery, which is no longer active after the opening of a new one, was desecrated twice in 2011 and 2013. There are two public universities in Oldenburg: Privately managed institutions of higher education: Other: Oldenburg hosted

594-833: A large postal system spanning India resulted in unprecedented postal access: a message on a postcard could be sent from one part of the country to another part (often to a physical address without a nearby post office) without additional postage affixed. This was followed in April 1880 by postcards meant specifically for government use and by reply postcards in 1890. The postcard facility continues to this date in independent India . Official postcards were introduced in December 1873, shortly after stamps were introduced to Japan. Return postcards were introduced in 1885, sealed postcards in 1900, and private postcards were allowed from 1900. In Japan, official postcards have one side dedicated exclusively to

693-493: A letter gets from the sender to the recipient: This process, depending on how far the sender is from the recipient, can take anywhere from a day to 3–4 weeks. International mail is sent via trains and airplanes to other countries. In 2008, Janet Barrett in the UK received an RSVP to a party invitation addressed to 'Percy Bateman', from 'Buffy', allegedly originally posted on 29 November 1919. It had taken 89 years to be delivered by

792-432: A medium. Something epistolary means that it is a form of letter writing. The term usually excludes written material intended to be read in its original form by large numbers of people, such as newspapers and placards, although even these may include material in the form of an " open letter ". The typical form of a letter for many centuries, and the archetypal concept even today, is a sheet (or several sheets) of paper that

891-644: A new type of card, PHQ Cards , popular with collectors, especially when they have the appropriate stamp affixed and a first day of issue postmark obtained. In 1894, British publishers were given permission by the Royal Mail to manufacture and distribute picture postcards, which could be sent through the post. It was originally thought that the first UK postcards were produced by printing firm Stewarts of Edinburgh but later research, published in Picture Postcard Monthly in 1991, has shown that

990-404: A number of people. Despite email's widespread use, letters are still popular, particularly in business and for official communications. At the same time, many "letters" are sent in electronic form. The following advantages of paper letters over e-mails and text messages are put forward: The following advantages are put forward for e-mails and text messages over traditional letters: Here is how

1089-491: A paper for public postings. According to the same state standards, cards are classified according to the type and kind. Depending on whether or not the image on the card printing postage stamp cards are divided into two types: Depending on whether or not the card illustrations, cards are divided into two types: Cards, depending on the location of illustrations divided into: Depending on the walking area cards subdivided into: In Britain, postcards without images were issued by

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1188-640: A primary source, postcards are incredibly important to the types of historical research conducted by historians, historic preservationists, and genealogists alike. They give insight into both the physical world, and the social world of the time. During their heyday postcards revolutionized communication, similar to social media of today. For those studying communication, they highlight the adoption of media, its adaptation, and its ultimate discarding. Postcards have been used to study topics as diverse as theatre, racial attitudes, and war. Libraries, archives, and museums have extensive collections of picture postcards; many of

1287-477: A really important pastime for some. Women were among these people to write letters and express themselves. A lot of female friendships were formed from women being encouraged to write letters. In fact, the most popular character who wrote in this period was named Clarissa Harlowe . This was also a chance for women to express their intelligence. They used letters also to separate themselves from their husbands and have their own voice to enter more into society. Even when

1386-427: A routine form of communication. For example, the development of the telegraph drastically shortened the time taken to send a communication, by sending it between distant points as an electrical signal. At the telegraph office closest to the destination, the signal was converted back into writing on paper and delivered to the recipient. The next step was the telex which avoided the need for local delivery. Then followed

1485-492: A separate envelope and thus how to fold the letter and where on the leaf to put the addresses. Business encyclopedias and textbooks of the 19th and 20th centuries show that businesspeople of those eras sometimes took the standardization of the forms of business letters to extremes. Typists were required to follow dozens or hundreds of rules about element placement and sizing, some of them with rather arbitrary and even counterproductive (wastefully expensive) strictness. However,

1584-515: A settlement dating back to the 8th century. The first documentary evidence, in 1108, referenced Aldenburg in connection with Elimar I (also known as Egilmar I) who is now commonly seen as the first count of Oldenburg. The town gained importance due to its location at a ford of the navigable Hunte river. Oldenburg became the capital of the County of Oldenburg (later a Duchy (1774–1810), Grand Duchy (1815–1918), and Free State (1918–1946)),

1683-547: A significant economic and cultural aspect of British seaside tourism. Sold by newsagents and street vendors, as well as by specialist souvenir shops, modern seaside postcards often feature multiple depictions of the resort in unusually favourable weather conditions. John Hinde used saturated colour and meticulously planned his photographs, which made his postcards of the later twentieth century become collected and admired as kitsch . Such cards are also respected as important documents of social history , and have been influential on

1782-413: A small state in the shadow of the much more powerful Hanseatic city of Bremen . In the 17th century Oldenburg was a wealthy town in a time of war and turmoil and its population and power grew considerably. In 1667, the town was struck by a disastrous plague epidemic and, shortly after, a fire destroyed Oldenburg. The Danish kings, who were also counts of Oldenburg at the time, had little interest in

1881-521: A way for the general public to keep in touch with their friends and family, and required little writing. Anytime there was a major event, a postcard photographer was there to document it (including celebrations, disasters, political movements, and even wars). Commemorating popular humor, entertainment, fashion, and many other aspects of daily life, they also shed light on transportation, sports, work, religion, and advertising. Cards were sent to convey news of death and birth, store purchases, and employment. As

1980-586: Is a wealth of letters and instructional materials (for example, manuals , as in the medieval ars dictaminis ) on letter writing throughout history. The study of letter writing usually involves both the study of rhetoric and grammar . Historians of the medieval period often study family letter collections, which gather the personal and business correspondence of a group of related people and shed light on their daily life. The Paston Letters (1425 – 1520 CE) are widely studied for insight into life in Britain during

2079-413: Is elected directly by the citizens. The city centre of Oldenburg is surrounded by a ring of freeways ( autobahns ) consisting of A 28 , A 29 and A 293 . Because of this, Oldenburg is connected to the nationwide network of federal autobahns, as well as to the international E-road network (German: Europastraßen ). Oldenburg Central Station , Oldenburg (Oldb) Hauptbahnhof , is at the intersection of

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2178-478: Is located about 17 km south-west of Oldenburg. It serves to small aircraft (private planes, gliders, balloons, and helicopters). A flight training school is also located there, and small planes can be chartered. Scenic flights can be booked as well. Oldenburg is connected to shipping through the Küstenkanal , a ship canal connecting the rivers Ems and Weser . With 1.6 million tons of goods annually, it

2277-630: Is officially named Oldenburg (Oldb) ( Oldenburg in Oldenburg ) to distinguish from Oldenburg in Holstein . During the French annexation (1811–1813) in the wake of the Napoleonic war against Britain, it was also known as Le Vieux-Bourg in French. The city is at the rivers Hunte and Haaren , in the northwestern region between the cities of Bremen in the east and Groningen (Netherlands) in

2376-636: Is sent to a correspondent through a postal system . A letter can be formal or informal , depending on its audience and purpose. Besides being a means of communication and a store of information, letter writing has played a role in the reproduction of writing as an art throughout history. Letters have been sent since antiquity and are mentioned in the Iliad . Historians Herodotus and Thucydides mention and use letters in their writings. Historically, letters have existed from ancient India , ancient Egypt and Sumer , through Rome , Greece and China , up to

2475-619: Is the St Lamberti Church . The history of the Jewish community of Oldenburg dates back to the 14th century. Towards and during the 19th century, the Jews in Oldenburg were always around 1% of the total population, and by that time had acquired their own synagogue, cemetery and school. Most of them were merchants and businessmen. On 1938 Kristallnacht , the town men were led to Sachsenhausen concentration camp , among them Leo Trepp ,

2574-568: Is the most important non-coastal harbour in Lower Saxony. Bicycles play a very important part in personal transport. The city is surrounded by large agricultural areas, about 80% of which is grassland. There are farms near and even a few within city limits. Predominant agricultural activities of the region are the cultivation of livestock, especially dairy cows and other grazing animals, crops such as grains for food and animal feed, as well as asparagus, corn, and kale. Sea salt production in

2673-557: The Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act . The effects of tariffs really started to make a large impact, and escalating hostilities in Europe made it difficult to import cards and ink into the United States. The fad may have also simply run its natural course. The war disrupted production efforts in Europe, although postcard production did not entirely stop. Cards were still useful for propaganda, and for boosting troop morale. After

2772-546: The Post Office in 1870, and were printed with a stamp as part of the design, which was included in the price of purchase. These cards came in two sizes. The larger size was found to be slightly too large for ease of handling, and was soon withdrawn in favour of cards 13mm ( 1 ⁄ 2 inch) shorter. 75 million of these cards were sent within Britain during 1870. In 1973 the British Post Office introduced

2871-593: The Wars of the Roses . Other major medieval family letter collections include the Stonor Letters (1420 – 1483 CE), Plumpton letters (1416 – 1552 CE), and Cely Letters (1472-1488 CE). Letters were a chief form of communication, in both personal and business communications, for many centuries before telegraphy , telephony , and Internet communications reduced their primacy. Even in times and places where literacy

2970-427: The 12th inst. " meant "your letter of the 12th of this month"; "do" meant " ditto "; and forms like "Yr Obdt Srvt" for "Your Obedient Servant" were common. There are a number of different types of letter: Cryptography (secret writing) sometimes played a role in letters in centuries past, as correspondents would use previously agreed code to try to shield the plaintext from the comprehension of prying eyes during

3069-406: The 18th-century was a rough process that required a lot of materials, many of which were difficult or expensive to get. Researchers interested in the links and connections between migrants, settlers, and refugees have increasingly concentrated on letters and their purposes. Surprisingly, academics only began examining letters as artifacts in the late twentieth century; most studies continue to focus on

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3168-584: The Oldenburg region has been used since the 15th century to supply the huge salt demand in the Baltic region. Peat extraction in the area continued for many centuries until it was replaced by coal mines. As of 31.12.2019 Oldenburg had 169,960 residents. 24.8% of the population were first or second generation immigrants. Oldenburg is the seat of administration and bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg , whose preaching venue

3267-1003: The Promulgation of Post Cards , and the Post Card Union sprang up to facilitate postcard exchanges, each having thousands of members. Postcard albums were commonly seen in Victorian parlors, and had a place of prominence in many middle and upper class households. Today, postcard collecting is still a popular and widespread hobby. The value of a postcard is mainly determined by the image illustrated on it. Other important factors for collectors can be countries, issuers, and authors. Online catalogs can be found on collector websites and clubs. These catalogs provide detailed information about each postcard alongside their picture. In addition, these websites include collection management tools, trading platforms, and forums to assist with discussions between collectors. The oldest continuously run club in

3366-475: The Royal Mail. However, Royal Mail denied this, saying that it would be impossible for a letter to have remained in their system for so long, as checks are carried out regularly. Instead, the letter dated 1919 may have "been a collector's item which was being sent in another envelope and somehow came free of the outer packaging". The forms (conformations) of letters have usually followed traditional norms of

3465-525: The San Antonio post office processed more than 75,000 letters, of which they controlled 77 percent (and held 20 percent for the following week). Soldiers on the front developed strategies to circumvent censors. Some would go on "home leave" and take messages with them to post from a remote location. Those writing postcards in the field knew they were being censored, and deliberately held back controversial content and personal matters. Those writing home had

3564-537: The United States Postal Service would only allow the delivery of postcards showing a back view of naked men from Britain if their posteriors were covered with a black bar. Early postcards often showcased photography of nude women. Illegal to produce in the United States, these were commonly known as French postcards , due to the large number of them produced in France. Other countries objected to

3663-659: The United States between 1873 and 1874. Many of these postals included small images on the same side as the postage. Postcards began to be sent internationally after the first Congress of the General Postal Union , which met in Bern, Switzerland in October 1874. The Treaty of Bern was ratified in the United States in 1875. The first known printed picture postcard, with an image on one side, was created in France in 1870 at Camp Conlie by Léon Besnardeau (1829–1914). Conlie

3762-415: The United States government allowed privately printed cards as early as February 1861, they saw little use until 1870, when experiments were done on their commercial viability. A Prussian postal official, Heinrich von Stephan , first proposed an "open post-sheet" made of stiff paper in 1865. He proposed that one side would be reserved for a recipient address, and the other for a brief message. His proposal

3861-503: The United States is the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City , founded in 1946. Most of the terms on this list were devised by modern collectors to describe cards in their possession. For the most part, these terms were not used contemporaneously by publishers or others in the industry. Letter (message) A letter is a written message conveyed from one person (or group of people) to another through

3960-467: The United States, the golden age of postcards stemmed from a combination of social, economic, and governmental factors. Demand for postcards increased, government restrictions on production loosened, and technological advances (in photography, printing, and mass production) made the boom possible. In addition, the expansion of Rural Free Delivery allowed mail to be delivered to more American households than ever before. Billions of postcards were mailed during

4059-552: The United States, which banned the publication of "obscene matter as well as its circulation in the mails". In 1908, §3893 was added to the Comstock Act, stating that the ban included material "tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination". Although this act did not explicitly ban lynching photographs or postcards, it banned the explicit racist texts and poems inscribed on certain prints. According to some, these texts were deemed "more incriminating" and caused their removal from

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4158-498: The United States. They required less ink and had lower production standards than fine German cards. These were later replaced by "linen" postcards in the 1930s and 1940s, which used a printing process popularized by Curt Teich . Finally, the modern era of Photochrom (often shortened simply to "chrome") postcards began in 1939, and gained momentum around 1950. These glossy, colorful postcards are what we most commonly encounter today. Postcard sales dropped to around 25% of 1990s levels, with

4257-586: The abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II (9 November 1918) following the exhaustion and defeat of the German Empire in World War I , monarchic rule ended in Oldenburg as well with the abdication of Grand Duke Frederick Augustus II of Oldenburg ( Friedrich August II von Oldenburg ) on 11 November 1918. The Grand Duchy now became the Free State of Oldenburg ( German : Freistaat Oldenburg ) , with

4356-414: The acquisition of souvenir postcards from the world's fairs, which were produced specifically with the collector (souvenir hunter) in mind. Later, during the golden age of postcards, collecting became a mainstream craze. The frenzy of purchasing, mailing, and collecting postcards was often referred to as "postcarditis", with up to half purchased by collectors. Clubs such as The Jolly Jokers , The Society for

4455-445: The address, and the other side for the content, though commemorative picture postcards and private picture postcards also exist. In Japan today, two particular idiosyncratic postcard customs exist: New Year's Day postcards ( 年賀状 , nengajō ) and return postcard s ( 往復はがき , ōfuku-hagaki ) . New Year's Day postcards serve as greeting cards , similar to Western Christmas cards , while return postcards function similarly to

4554-695: The advice of Austrian Emanuel Herrmann and issued postals for soldiers to inexpensively send home from the field. The period from 1870 to 1874 saw a great number of countries begin the issuance of postals. In 1870, the North German Confederation was joined by Baden, Bavaria, Great Britain, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The year 1871 saw Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden introduce their own postals. Algeria, Chile, France and Russia did so in 1872, and were followed by France, Japan, Romania, Serbia, Spain and

4653-762: The books of the Bible. Archives of correspondence, whether for personal, diplomatic, or business reasons, serve as primary sources for historians. At certain times, the writing of letters was thought to be an art form and a genre of literature, for instance in Byzantine epistolography . In the ancient world letters might be written on various different materials, including metal, lead, wax-coated wooden tablets, pottery fragments, animal skin, and papyrus. From Ovid , we learn that Acontius used an apple for his letter to Cydippe . More recently, letters have mainly been written on paper: handwritten and more recently typed. There

4752-402: The centuries to enable the sending and receiving of letters whereby it would be evident to the recipient if anyone else had opened the letter before they received it. The principal class of these methods was sealing wax . Another method was to apply a small thin disc of adhesive material known as a wafer. A more elaborate class was letterlocking , including a type called spiral locking , which

4851-658: The city remaining the capital. In the 1928 city elections, the Nazi Party received 9.8% of the vote, enough for a seat on the Oldenburg city council. In the September 1930 Oldenburg state elections, the Nazi Party's share of the vote rose to 27.3%, and on May 29, 1932, the Nazi Party received 48.4% in the state election, enough to put the Nazi party in charge of forming a state government and, significantly, making Oldenburg

4950-446: The city that had suffered only 1.4% destruction during the bombing campaigns of World War II . About 42,000 refugees migrated into Oldenburg, which raised the number of residents to over 100,000. In 1946 the Free State of Oldenburg was dissolved and the area became the 'Administrative District' of Oldenburg ( Verwaltungsbezirk Oldenburg ) within the newly formed federal German state of Lower Saxony ( Niedersachsen ) . The city

5049-486: The community Rabbi who survived and later became an honorary citizen of Oldenburg and honored by a street named after him. Since 1981 an annual commemoration walk (Erinnerungsgang) has been held by Oldenburg citizens in memory of the deportation of the Oldenburg Jews on November 10, 1938. Those who remained after 1938 emigrated to Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Holland or Mandatory Palestine. After World War II ,

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5148-476: The condition of the town and it lost most of its former importance. In 1773, Danish rule ended. Only then were the destroyed buildings in the city rebuilt in a neoclassicist style. ( German -speakers usually call the "neoclassicist style" of that period klassizistisch , while neoklassizistisch specifically refers to the classicist style of the early 20th century.) After the German government announced

5247-557: The context of making reservations at certain locations that only accept reservations by return postcard, notably at Saihō-ji (moss temple). For overseas purposes, an international reply coupon is used instead. In the State Standard of the Russian Federation "GOST 51507-99. Postal cards. Technical requirements. Methods of Control" (2000) gives the following definition: Post Card is a standard rectangular form of

5346-497: The early 1930s, cartoon-style saucy postcards became widespread, and at the peak of their popularity the sale of saucy postcards reached 16 million a year. They were often bawdy in nature, making use of innuendo and double entendres , and traditionally featured stereotypical characters such as vicars, large ladies, and put-upon husbands, in the same vein as the Carry On films. A notable artist of seaside postcards, often saucy,

5445-475: The effort to standardize (on where to put the information and how to represent it) did have various valid motivations, as in some respects it presaged the concept of data normalization , helping with the extensive manual indexing, cataloguing, and filing that characterized the clerking duties of the era. Over the centuries, a lexicon of abbreviations, metonymic short forms, and conventional valedictions developed for frequent use in letters. For example, "yours of

5544-474: The enemy or approved of atrocities. For example, German censors prevented postcards with hostile slogans such as " Jeder Stoß ein Franzos " ("Every hit a Frenchman") among others. Postcards document the natural landscape as well as the built environment—buildings, gardens, parks, cemeteries, and tourist sites. They provide snapshots of societies at a time when few newspapers carried images. Postcards provided

5643-615: The enthusiasm with which the new medium was embraced) raised some legal issues. Picture postcards allowed and encouraged many individuals to send images across national borders, and the legal availability of a postcard image in one country did not guarantee that the card would be considered "proper" in the destination country, or in the intermediate countries that the card would have to pass through. Some countries might refuse to handle postcards containing sexual references (in seaside postcards) or images of full or partial nudity (for instance, in images of classical statuary or paintings). For example,

5742-666: The epistolary novel lost its popularity, people did not stop writing letters. It gave everyone a voice when they did not think they had one and it is incredibly important to people to have that, especially the women of this time. Alexander Pope was the first English writer to publish from his own letters during his lifetime, putting out a new example for authors and other important people's epistolary works. Pope recognized that writings may reflect both personal religious devotion and cleverness. Pope's works are lacking in formality and informality. He had written his letters all about his life and what he did. Pope also wrote about his friends and

5841-474: The fact of who paid for the posting (sender or recipient) —placed constraints on the forms of letters that varied from negligible in some times and places to crucial in others. These factors of cost drove norms on whether to write on both sides of the leaf, whether to cross the leaf with lines written in both directions (horizontally and vertically), whether to allow margins and how big or small to make them, how much to abbreviate to save space, and whether to have

5940-568: The fax (facsimile) machine: a letter could be transferred from the sender to the receiver through the telephone network as an image. These technologies did not displace physical letters as the primary route for communication; however today, the Internet, by means of email, plays the main role in written communications, together with text messages; however, these email communications are not generally referred to as letters but rather as e-mail (or email) messages, messages or simply emails or e-mails, with

6039-469: The first UK picture card was published by ETW Dennis of Scarborough . Two postmarked examples of the September 1894 ETW Dennis card have survived but no cards of Stewarts dated 1894 have been found. Early postcards were pictures of landmarks, scenic views, photographs or drawings of celebrities and so on. With steam locomotives providing fast and affordable travel, the seaside became a popular tourist destination, and generated its own souvenir-industry. In

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6138-601: The first state in the country to put the Nazis in power based on electoral turnout. By that autumn, a campaign of Aryanization began, forcing the sale of formerly Jewish-owned properties at steep discounts. In 1945, after World War II , the State of Oldenburg became part of the British zone of occupation . The British military government of the Oldenburg region resided in the city. Several displaced-persons camps were set up in

6237-429: The first time. Just as social media streams now allow modern celebrities to present versions of their intimate lives for the public to see and read all about, so did early modern and 18th-century figures carefully build themselves in their letters for audiences to be excited to read these works of literature. In the 18th century, readers frequently associated personal letters with the ideals of honesty and truth. Writing in

6336-523: The format of letters. The novel also debuted in the 17th century with Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister . Letter writers used this to communicate and explore their identity and daily life at the time. As a medium of writing that lies ambiguously between the public and private worlds, letters provide an appealing peek into other people's thoughts, feelings, and lives. During this historical period, publishing these "private" letters so they could build and preserve literary prominence became common for

6435-513: The golden age, including nearly a billion per year in United States from 1905 to 1915, and 7 billion worldwide in 1905. Many postcards from this era were in fact never posted but directly acquired by collectors themselves. Despite years of incredible success, economic and government forces would ultimately spell the end of the golden age. The peak came sometime between 1907 and 1910 for the United States. In 1909, American publishers successfully lobbied to place tariffs on high quality German imports with

6534-520: The growing popularity of social media around 2007, resulting in closure of long-established printers such as J Salmon Ltd in 2017. In July 1879, the Post Office of India introduced a quarter anna postcard that could be posted from one place to another within British India . This was the cheapest form of post provided to the Indian people to date and proved a huge success. The establishment of

6633-418: The health and work of them. "All the pleasure of using familiar letters is to give us the assurance of a friend's welfare," Pope said. He had also taken to describing himself as "a mortal enemy and despiser of what they call fine letters." There was a letter addressed to Pope's father that ended up being used as writing paper for the Iliad . When Alexander Pope's letters were published, they were widely read by

6732-513: The image functioned as a souvenir was sent from Vienna . The first advertising card appeared in 1872 in Great Britain and the first German card appeared in 1874. Private advertising cards started appearing in the United States around 1873, and qualified for a special postage rate of one cent. Private cards inspired Lipman's card were also produced concurrently with the U.S. government postal in 1873. The backs of these private cards contained

6831-581: The inappropriate use of religious imagery. The Ottoman Empire banned the sale or importation of some materials relating to the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 1900. Affected postcards that were successfully sent through the Ottoman Empire before this date (and are postmarked accordingly) have a high rarity value and are considered valuable by collectors. In 1873, the Comstock Act was passed in

6930-437: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. As an easy and quick way for individuals to communicate, they became extremely popular. The study and collecting of postcards is termed deltiology (from Greek deltion , small writing tablet, and the also Greek -logy , the study of). Cards with messages have been sporadically created and posted by individuals since the beginning of postal services. The earliest known picture postcard

7029-426: The letter's transit. This could be done in business letters to lessen spying by competitors on prices and methods and in personal letters to try to evade postal censorship (either of wartime censors or of peacetime authoritarian censors ) or the gossip of townsfolk. It could be in either cryptic form (for example, "AEDFX GHSTR HTFXV") or in deceptively readable form (for example, "the dog will run at sunset unless

7128-418: The mail instead of the photograph itself because the text made "too explicit what was always implicit in lynchings". Some towns imposed " self-censorship " on lynching photographs, but section 3893 was the first step towards a national censorship . Despite the amendment, the distribution of lynching photographs and postcards continued. Though they were not sold openly, the censorship was bypassed when people sent

7227-452: The mail, at letter rate, a picture or blank card stock that held a message, began with a card postmarked in December 1848 containing printed advertising. The first commercially produced card was created in 1861 by John P. Charlton of Philadelphia , who patented a private postal card, and sold the rights to Hymen Lipman , whose postcards, complete with a decorated border, were marketed as "Lipman's Postal Card". These cards had no images. While

7326-625: The material in envelopes or mail wrappers. Censorship played an important role in the First World War. Each country involved utilized some form of censorship. This was a way to sustain an atmosphere of ignorance and give propaganda a chance to succeed. In response to the war, the United States Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918 . These gave broad powers to the government to censor

7425-438: The national course of epistolary novels. Letters also offer information on changing conceptions of privacy, secrecy, and trust during a period of widespread censorship, especially in war. Lastly, study on letter writing and mail services culture exposes the economic and technical roots of letter writing, as well as how links required resources ranging from writing tables and ink to postal employees and ships to carry letters over

7524-468: The postcards in these collections are digitized Efforts are continuously being made by professionals in these fields to digitize these materials to make them more widely accessible to the public. For those interested, there are already several large collections viewable online. Some large digital collections of postcards include: It is likely that postcard collecting first began as soon as postcards were mailed. One could argue that actual collecting began with

7623-403: The present day. During the 17th and 18th centuries, letters were used to self-educate. The main purposes of letters were to send information, news and greetings. For some, letters were a way to practice critical reading, self-expressive writing, polemical writing and also exchange ideas with like-minded others. For some people, letters were seen as a written performance. Letters make up several of

7722-492: The press through the use of fines, and later any criticism of the government, army, or sale of war bonds. The Espionage Act laid the groundwork for the establishment of a Central Censorship Board which oversaw censorship of communications including cable and mail. Postal control was eventually introduced in all of the armies, to find the disclosure of military secrets and test the morale of soldiers. In Allied countries , civilians were also subjected to censorship. French censorship

7821-554: The railway lines Norddeich Mole — Leer —Oldenburg—Bremen and Wilhelmshaven —Oldenburg—Osnabrück, with Intercity services to Berlin , Leipzig and Dresden and InterCityExpress services to Frankfurt and Munich . Oldenburg is only about half an hour drive from Bremen Airport (about 50 km | 31 miles). Other international airports nearby are Hamburg Airport (160 km | 100 miles) and Hannover-Langenhagen Airport (170 km | 106 miles). The small Hatten Airfield, (Flugplatz Oldenburg-Hatten ICAO airport code : EDWH),

7920-462: The rains come"). By the standards of modern digital applied cryptography, the security was often not especially high (that is, the codebreaking was not necessarily difficult), but it was usually high enough to meet the demands of the context (that is, the degree of risk, the likelihood or stakes of any codebreaking efforts, and the state of the codebreaking art in each era). Various forms or precursors of tamper-evident technology were developed over

8019-422: The term security envelope refers to security bags . Diplomatic mail pouch systems are special, small, closed postal systems run by each country's ministry of foreign affairs or department of state. A general theme of the diplomatic mail pouch is that outsiders never have physical access to it during the entire chain of custody; it never gets sent off out of sight of authorized persons, which would otherwise be

8118-412: The term "letter" generally being reserved for communications on paper. Due to the timelessness and universality of letter writing, extant letters from earlier eras constitute an important category of source material in historiography (the methodology of historians). During the 18th century, called the "Great Age of Letter Writing," the epistolary novel became a hugely popular genre and came from

8217-430: The times and places where correspondence took place. Aspects such as where to place the elements ( salutation , body of letter, valediction /closing, sender's address, recipient's address, date, and so on) were somewhat standardized albeit also usually flexible in practice. The form often varied by kind of letter . For any kind, though, factors of cost—such as that each sheet/leaf of paper cost money to buy and to post, and

8316-441: The war, the production of postcards continued, albeit in different styles than before. Demand for postcards decreased, especially as telephone usage grew. There was still a need for postcards, which would be dubbed the "poor man's telephone". As tastes changed, publishers began focusing on scenic views, humor, and fashion. "White border" cards, which existed prior to the war, were produced in greater numbers from roughly 1915 to 1930 in

8415-446: The weak link in the chain where intelligence agencies could surreptitiously examine it in non-evident ways. The mail pouch itself in a diplomatic mail pouch system is often a security bag instead of merely any cloth pouch or sack. Oldenburg (city) Oldenburg ( German pronunciation: [ˈɔldn̩bʊʁk] ; Northern Low Saxon : Ollnborg ) is an independent city in the state of Lower Saxony , Germany. The city

8514-544: The west. According to Germany's 2022 census, the city's population is 172,759. Oldenburg is part of the Northwest Metropolitan Region , which is home to approximately 2.8 million people. The city is the place of origin of the House of Oldenburg . Before the end of the German Empire (1918), it was the administrative centre and residence of the monarchs of Oldenburg . Archaeological finds point to

8613-419: The words "Correspondence Card", "Mail Card" or "Souvenir Card" and required two-cent postage if they were written upon. Cards showing images increased in number during the 1880s. Images of the newly built Eiffel Tower in 1889 and 1890 gave impetus to the postcard, leading to the so-called "golden age" of the picture postcard. This golden age began slightly earlier in Europe than the United States, likely due to

8712-542: The work of Martin Parr . The United States Postal Service defines a postcard as: rectangular, at least 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches (88.9 mm) high × 5 inches (127 mm) long × 0.007 inches (0.178 mm) thick and no more than 4 + 1 ⁄ 4 inches (108 mm) high × 6 inches (152.4 mm) long × 0.016 inches (0.406 mm) thick. However, some postcards have deviated from this (for example, shaped postcards). The initial appearance of picture postcards (and

8811-433: The world. A lot of letters that were written in this time also showed up in a popular magazine called The Gentleman's Magazine . People were also charged for postage during this time. They either had to pay before or during transit. Writers took great caution in their number of pages so they did not have to pay so much. These writers were considered very clever in their way to avoid the overcharge. Letter writing also became

8910-407: Was a hand-painted design on card created by the writer Theodore Hook . Hook posted the card, which bears a penny black stamp, to himself in 1840 from Fulham (part of London). He probably did so as a practical joke on the postal service, since the image is a caricature of workers in the post office. In 2002 the postcard sold for a record £31,750. In the United States, the custom of sending through

9009-658: Was a training camp for soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War . The cards had a lithographed design printed on them containing emblematic images of piles of armaments on either side of a scroll topped by the arms of the Duchy of Brittany and the inscription "War of 1870. Camp Conlie. Souvenir of the National Defence. Army of Brittany" (in French). While these are certainly the first known picture postcards, there

9108-612: Was denied on grounds of being too radical and officials did not believe anyone would willingly give up their privacy. In October 1869, the post office of Austria-Hungary accepted a similar proposal, also without images, and 3 million cards were mailed within the first three months. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, the government of the North German Confederation decided to take

9207-476: Was especially relevant to government ministers, royal courts, judicial courts, and legislators. Envelopes are available in plain types as well as types with somewhat higher privacy protection in which a pattern of ink is printed on the inner side, making it more difficult for anyone trying to candle a sealed letter (that is, examine it translucently via backlight ). Such envelopes are usually called privacy envelopes or security envelopes. Another sense of

9306-417: Was lower, illiterate people could pay literate ones to write letters to, and to read letters from, distant correspondents. Even in the era of telegrams and telephones, letters remained quite important until fax and email further eroded their primacy, especially since the turn of the 21st century. As communication technology has developed in recent history, posted letters on paper have become less important as

9405-679: Was modest and more targeted compared to the sweeping efforts made by the British and Americans. In Great Britain, all mail was sent to censorship offices in London or Liverpool. The United States sent mail to several centralized post offices as directed by the Central Censorship Board. American censors would only open mail related to Spain, Latin America or Asia—as their British allies were handling other countries. In one week alone,

9504-406: Was no space for stamps and no evidence that they were ever posted without envelopes. In Germany, the bookdealer August Schwartz from Oldenburg is regarded as the inventor of the illustrated postcard. On July 16, 1870, he mailed a post correspondence card with an image of a man with a cannon, signaling the looming Franco-Prussian war. In the following year the first known picture postcard in which

9603-545: Was now capital of the district. In 1978 the district was dissolved and succeeded by the newly formed Weser-Ems administrative region ( Regierungsbezirk Weser-Ems ) , again with the city as administrative capital. The state of Lower Saxony dissolved all of the Regierungsbezirke by the end of 2004 in the course of administrative reforms. Local elections take place every five years. The city council (Stadtrat) has 50 seats. The lord mayor (Oberbürgermeister)

9702-489: Was the illustrator Thomas Henry , most known for his portrayal of William Brown in the Just William book series by Richmal Crompton . He started drawing postcards as early as 1913, continuing well into the 1950s. In the early 1950s, the newly elected Conservative government were concerned at the apparent deterioration of morals in the UK and decided on a crackdown on these postcards. The main target of their campaign

9801-485: Was the postcard artist Donald McGill . In the more liberal 1960s, the saucy postcard was revived and later came to be considered, by some, as an art form. Original postcards are now highly sought after, and rare examples can command high prices at auction. The best-known saucy seaside postcards were produced by the publishing company Bamforths of Holmfirth , West Yorkshire . Despite the decline in popularity of postcards that are overtly "saucy", postcards continue to be

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