The University of Delaware Library Postcard Collection includes over one hundred fifty photographic, or "Real Photo," postcards—photographs of local businesses, railroad stations, schools, private homes, and landscapes—that document life in Delaware during the early twentieth century. They are ephemera of a distinctly local flavor—visual records of social gatherings, small town celebrations, fairs and markets, and local disasters.

Photographic postcards were created in small quantities, often by the amateur photographer, for the consumption of his own small circle of family and friends, rather than being mass-produced by a publisher and sold in retail stores. While many postcards are “stock” images of well-known sights and places, photographic postcards are more likely to be unique images. They capture a moment, preserve a unique view, or reveal the distinctive local character of a place.

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Photographic Versus Printing Process

Photographic, or "real photo," postcards are true photographs that are printed on postcard stock using a photographic printing process. In a photographic printing process, a light-sensitive substance on a negative or printing paper turns dark when exposed to light to create the image. Most postcards with images that look like photographs are actually printed using ink in a photomechanical printing process, the same way that photographs are reproduced for publication in books.

Spontaneous and Unique Views

The production of photographic postcards was made popular and easy by George Eastman’s development of a light, hand-held camera—the Kodak. This simplified photography and launched a new breed of photographer: the amateur. Eastman’s camera was preloaded with one hundred exposures of film, so the photographer’s only job was to take the picture. After shooting the film, the photographer returned the whole camera to Kodak for development, and had the choice of prints or real photo postcards. In 1902, Kodak began offering a card back that allowed postcards to be made directly from negatives, inspiring photographers to document local attractions and to sell them in drug stores and stationery shops.

It is the spontaneous nature of a photograph that makes real photo postcards so remarkable. Amateur photographers and professionals alike created photographic postcards, often capturing unique views. A photograph of a firemen’s parade in Wilmington presents the celebratory march down a city street. Its outstanding vantage point, from the perspective of a young boy who has shimmied up an electrical pole to watch the parade, captures the immediacy of the event. The postcard is a rare view of the parade, which in a mass-produced postcard might have been depicted from street level.

Moments in Time

Photographic cards also are more likely to depict specific events and actions, rather than buildings and landmarks. It is likely that some photographic postcards are the only existing image of a place or event. At Rehoboth, a photographer who happened to witness a boat accident captured the reaction of the beach-goers in a photographic postcard, and called it “Running-to-the-Rescue.”

Rather than showing the aftermath of the event, as do a number of cards in this collection that show the wrecked ship on the beach, this photographic card documents a short-lived and immediate moment in time. Such a card has great value as a historic document, since newspapers rarely reproduced photographs in the early part of the twentieth century. In many instances, photographic postcards provide the only visual record of a local event or disaster.


Advertising Cards

Advertising cards made by a photographic process are rare. A photographic card that advertises Blue Hen Milk shows a herd of cows with dairy farm buildings in the background and a phone number to call for deliveries.

Portraiture

Photographic postcards were also a popular medium for portraits. Individual or group portraits commemorated a special event or recorded the membership of a club, often as a keepsake for the members’ scrapbooks. Less likely to have been mailed than other cards, portrait cards may have been treasured by their owners as personal memorabilia. These cards are now invaluable documentation of an organization’s history, and can help to trace individuals or gain knowledge about the organization’s membership in general. Two cards show, respectively, the members of Eden Lodge of Wilmington and the twenty-member Henry & Young’s Band of Wilmington.

Clues to Identification and Dating

Occasionally a photographic postcard was reprinted from the negative at a later date. Two images of Ye Olde Mill in Marshallton are examples of this. In this case, the backs of the cards show that they were printed at different times. It was not until March 1907 that a U.S. postcard could have a message written on the back. Until this time, only the address could be written on the back. The earlier image has an “undivided back,” indicating that is was produced before March 1907. The backs of postcards dating from March 1907 and after are divided down the center, with space alloted for a message on the left and an address on the right. A card with an identical image has a “divided back” and a message, indicating that this is a later printing of the same photograph.