The first picture postcards were published in France in 1870, for the use of troops fighting the Franco-Prussian War. The first American picture postcards were produced for and sold at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Ten different views were sold in vending machines, in packets of two.
The popularity of the picture postcard reached it height at the beginning of the twentieth century. As with anything classified as "ephemera" they were designed to communicate a message and then be thrown away. However many of these early cards still exist today because they were too beautiful to be discarded, or because the recipients saved them for sentimental reasons.
Displayed here are examples from the more than 500 postcards with playing card imagery that we have in our collection.
| Zurich, Switzerland H. Guggenheim & Co. |
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| Full Size Image Approx.=(120.1 K) |
| Saxony Raphael Tuck & Sons First Love Series |
| Full Size Image Approx.=(96 K) |
| Germany An 8 Card Series Kings and Queens |
| Full Size Image Approx.=(87.9K) |
| F.Wayne & Co. Randolph Caldecott's Pictures One in a 4 card series |
| Full Size Image Approx.=(98.3K) |
| Great Britain W.R. & S |
| Full Size Image Approx.=(89.7K) |
| United States Moffat Yard & Co. Artist: Will Grefe copyright: 1909 One in a 4 card series: Queens |
| Full Size Image Approx.=(75.9K) |
| United States Ullman Mfg. Co. N.Y. One in a series of 8 cards Kings and Queens |
| Full Size Image Approx.=(79.8K) |
| Printed in Bavaria Stewart & Woolf, London One in a series of 12 cards Kings, Queens, Knaves |
| Full Size Image Approx.=(78K) |