This is my collection of dated Victorian and Edwardian postcards. The picture postcard dates back to 1894 and rapidly evolved over the following two decades with the introduction of new formats and print technologies. This is regularly preferred to as the golden age of postcards. The postcard emerged as a cheap form of communication - half the cost of sending a letter. Early postcards were used to send a wide range of everyday messages rather than just acting as holiday souvenirs.
My interest has been using these rapid changes, and postmarks, to date late Victorian and Edwardian images of Abingdon. Technology featured postcards such as postboxes, road signs, bicycles, vehicles, and fashion, can also help date photographs. Postcards provide good reference material for identifying these signs in other photographs.
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 140 (122 unique) cards catalogued on this site.
There are 14 undivided cards.
There are 126 divided cards.
The oldest picture post card is dated 1902-03-21.
The newest picture post card is dated 1929-05-05.
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.