Large-letter postcards bearing the words “Greetings from” a state, city or tourist attraction were more than just souvenirs. According to curators and collectors, they reflected American innovation and idealism in both their production and their popularity.
The style was not new when Curt Teich, a German immigrant, began producing colourful linen-textured versions in the early 1930s. But Will Hansen, curator of Americana at the Newberry Library in Chicago, which holds the largest public collection of Teich postcards in the United States, called him “a kind of genius”. Just as Henry Ford revolutionised car production, Teich’s company perfected a system of mass-producing large-letter cards based on the idea that no town was too small to include. “You take an idea, and you perfect it and you replicate it,” Hansen said.
The postcards’ popularity in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s was fuelled by the automobile and the adventure of road travel. Teich and his imitators used saturated colours and simplified scenes to depict an enticing, optimistic version of mid-20th-century America. “They’re very optimistic-looking,” Hansen said, reflecting a belief that the country was on an upward trajectory, with more money to spend and the freedom to travel.
Peter Meggison, a retired community college professor in Westport, Massachusetts, has amassed 10,000 large-letter postcards. His favourites include cards from his hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and a Saugatuck, Michigan, card featuring a vibrant artist’s palette. “I think it’s the graphics that appeal to a lot of people, and they really do represent mid-20th century America,” he said.
For those who did not collect, sending the cards was an inexpensive way to show off travel. Today, people pose in front of murals mimicking the vintage cards and share photos on social media. The Newberry recently helped the rock band The Eagles create gigantic postcard imagery at the Sphere in Las Vegas for their performance of “Take It Easy”. As Hansen noted: “Even if folks in that crowd weren’t alive at the time when these were being distributed, everybody knows them.”
