When memory was made of paper and a gesture of love was enough to remember a life, for an entire lifetime da Barbara Bonanno BNNRRB
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Postcards may be small, yet they have been decisive in the history of modern communication: they transformed writing into a quick, affordable, and accessible gesture. For decades, they also preserved something we are now losing: the physical trace of a presence—handwriting, a choice, a human sense of time. Origins: the birth of the postcard (1869) The first official postcard was issued in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1869 under the name Correspondenz-Karte (correspondence card). It was linked to the proposal of Emanuel Herrmann and adopted by the postal administration as a means for short written correspondence. Within just a few years, the format spread across numerous countries: the “postcard” became a new communication standard, a form halfway between a letter and a telegram. 1874: international postcards and postal standardization A crucial historical milestone came on October 9, 1874, when the General Postal Union was founded in Bern—later renamed the Universal Postal Union (UPU). This organization made modern international mail possible and regulated. Among the rules introduced was the pricing logic for postcards: a postcard was generally set at about half the rate of a letter. This made sending messages easier and less expensive, encouraging the spread of postcards beyond national borders. From the “simple” card to the illustrated postcard (late 19th century) In the second half of the nineteenth century, the postcard evolved from a plain support into a visual object: printed images, decorative motifs, advertisements, and souvenirs. This was the birth of the illustrated postcard as we know it today. Circa 1890–1915: the “Golden Age” The peak of postcard popularity is often referred to as the Golden Age of Postcards, roughly between 1890 and 1915 (with variations from country to country). It was the era in which the postcard became a true social phenomenon: it was mailed, collected, exchanged, and carefully kept. An important technical detail: the “divided back” (from 1902) Originally, the back of the card was often reserved solely for the address, while the message had to be written on the front around the image (or in very limited space). The introduction of the divided back—address on the right, message on the left—changed both the layout and the way postcards were used. This format appeared in Europe in the early twentieth century, with adoption progressively regulated between 1902 and 1905 in various countries. Decline: when time became instant Throughout the twentieth century, the postcard remained alive mainly as a ritual of travel and affection, but it gradually lost its central role with the arrival of immediate communication (telephone, and later digital technology). Today it has become increasingly rare—not because it is useless, but because it is slow, tangible, and real. And precisely for this reason it is precious: a postcard requires a complete gesture—choosing, writing, signing, posting—and within that gesture the memory of a life can remain, for an entire lifetime.
