Postcards History

COLLECT STAMPS  AND POSTCARDS describes the history of the postcard beginning as early and 1840.  Private printed postcards were designed and copyrighted by J. P. Charlton who later sold the Rights to H. L. Lipman.  

Postcards as a way of communicating began in Hungary and appeared in England in 1872.  Germany began using postcards in 1874.  The United States first "postal cards" were issued by the U. S. Postal Service in 1873 and were pre-stamped.

Until the time when they began printing cards that were divided by a line down the middle, it was not allowed to write anything on the address side of the card.