Editing Postcard (section)

== Historical value ==
Postcards document the natural landscape as well as the built environment—buildings, gardens, parks, cemeteries, and tourist sites. They provide snapshots of societies at a time when few newspapers carried images.<ref name=":7" />  Postcards provided a way for the general public to keep in touch with their friends and family, and required little writing.<ref name=":7" /> Anytime there was a major event, a postcard photographer was there to document it (including celebrations, disasters, political movements, and even wars).<ref name=":7" /> Commemorating popular humor, entertainment, fashion, and many other aspects of daily life, they also shed light on transportation, sports, work, religion, and advertising.<ref name=":7" /> Cards were sent to convey news of death and birth, store purchases, and employment.<ref name=":7" />
[[File:1971, Carte postale de Paris avec Tabouret Tour Eiffel.jpeg|thumb|Postcard of [[Paris]] from 1971. Motive: 1960s [[Eiffel Tower]] Stool.]]

As a primary source, postcards are incredibly important to the types of historical research conducted by historians, historic preservationists, and genealogists alike. They give insight into both the physical world, and the social world of the time. During their heyday postcards revolutionized communication, similar to social media of today.<ref name=":2" /> For those studying communication, they highlight the adoption of media, its adaptation, and its ultimate discarding.<ref name=":2" /> Postcards have been used to study topics as diverse as theatre, racial attitudes, and war.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Farfan|first=P.|s2cid=192002863|date=2012|title="The Picture Postcard is a sign of the times": Theatre Postcards and Modernism|journal=Theatre History Studies|volume=32|pages=93–119|doi=10.1353/ths.2012.0018}}</ref><ref name=":19" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vanderwood|first=Paul|date=1988|title=Writing History with Picture Postcards|url=https://sandiegohistory.org/journal/1988/january/postcards/|journal=The Journal of San Diego History|volume=34|issue=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629192932/http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/1988/january/postcards/|archive-date=2016-06-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eiland |first=Murray |date=2019 |title=Heraldry on German Patriotic Postcards |url=https://www.academia.edu/38797971 |journal=The Armiger's News |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=1–5 |via=academia.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eiland |first=Murray |date=2019 |title=Heraldry on American Patriotic Postcards |url=https://www.academia.edu/38516772 |journal=The Armiger's News |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=1–3 |via=academia.edu}}</ref>

=== Digital collections ===
Libraries, archives, and museums have extensive collections of picture postcards; many of the postcards in these collections are digitized<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://teachingwiththemes.com/index.php/2019/05/24/post-cards-as-primary-sources/|title=Old Postcards: Messages about the Past|website=Primary Source Bazaar|date=24 May 2019}}</ref> Efforts are continuously being made by professionals in these fields to digitize these materials to make them more widely accessible to the public. For those interested, there are already several large collections viewable online. Some large digital collections of postcards include:

* ''[https://www.oldnyc.org/ OldNYC]'' (New York Public Library)
*[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections Digital Collections] (New York Public Library)
**These collections include the Detroit Publishing Company, holiday postcards, WWI postcards, and more.
* ''[https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/nby_teich Curt Teich Postcard Archives Digital Collection]'' (Newberry Library)
* [https://bildpostkarten.uni-osnabrueck.de/ Historische Bildpostkarten Universität Osnabrück] (Osnabrueck University Library, Germany)
* ''[https://pendergastkc.org/ The Pendergast Years]'' (Kansas City Public Library)
* ''[https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/postcards/ Northwest Historical Postcards Collection]'' (University of Idaho)
* ''[https://kansascollection.omeka.net/collections/show/2 Kansas City, Kansas Postcard Collection]'' (Kansas City, Kansas Public Library)
* [https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1LjmRG49 Ernest G. Best postcard collection of merchant vessels, naval vessels and sailing vessels, 1900–1940]. State Library of New South Wales, PXE 722/Items 1–4961.