The Edwardian era was the golden age of picture postcards. Emerging from the late-Victorian period, the postcard was the cheapest form of communication - half the cost of sending a letter. Postcards were as likely to contain everyday messages as they would be a holiday souvenir - postcards were the text messaging and Instagram of the time.
Intended to be disposable ephemera, these postcards offer a glimpse into ordinary Edwardian life. The cards capture relatable and mundane details of work, travel, school, and family life, that are overlooked in comparison to histories that focus on politics and the lives of the great.
The postcards capture subtle changes in society, technology and Abingdon. Through the Edwardian period we see photography becoming increasingly accessible, the introduction of the motorcar, changes in our civil spaces and shops, and the coming war on the horizon. I hope that these images can provide a useful reference for other local historians.
Resources
My Research Notes.
Local postcard sites:
Books:
- Byatt, Anthony: Picture Postcards and Their Publishers: An Illustrated Account Identifying Britain's Major Postcard Publishers, 1894-1939, and the Great Variety of Cards They Issued
- Gascoigne, Bamber: How to Identify Prints: A Complete Guide to Manual and Mechanical Processes from Woodcut to Ink Jet
- Lund, Brian and Mary: Picture Postcard Annual 2023
- 1905 Kelly's Directory: Oxford, Abingdon and Neighbourhood.
Image processing
The colour and contrast of the images has been adjusted to reveal detail and is not 100% authentic. The reverse of the cards are far less yellowed and dirty in person. The images were scanned at 600dpi, then scaled down to 300dpi with a quality setting of 75 for presentation on this website.
Statistics
There are 220 (195 unique) cards catalogued on this site.
There are 17 undivided cards.
There are 201 divided cards.
The oldest picture post card is dated 21/03/1902.
The newest picture post card is dated 05/05/1929.
Copyright
The images on this site are all produced from scans of postcards I own. In the UK copyright in photographs lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years. At the time of writing, this means that if the photographer died before 1955 the photographs are no longer protected by copyright. In most cases I'm am unable to identify the photographer, but it is highly likely that they died before 1955. For example: Henry Taunt died in 1922, Frank Warland Andrew died in 1940. Please get in touch if you believe I have included material that you own the rights to.