About

About Postcard Origins

Postcard Origins is an independent reference for one question: where did this postcard come from, and when?

The information needed to date old postcards has existed for decades — in archive finding aids, collector society charts, and out-of-print references — but scattered, and rarely in a form you can simply use. We build it into tools: a decoder for Curt Teich production numbers, a step-by-step era wizard, an illustrated stamp-box directory, and histories of the major postcard publishers.

Our standards are on the sources & methodology page, and they’re simple: cite the source, show the disagreements, return a range when a range is the truth, and say “we can’t date this one” when we can’t.

About the editor

I’m Julien, a postcard dealer and collector in California, and I’ve been dealing and collecting cards for a few years. What keeps me at it is that every postcard tells a story — the image on the front, the message on the back, and the stamp and postmark that carried it across the country. This site is where I work out where each card came from, and when — and show the evidence, so you can do the same.

Contact

Corrections, better sources, or questions: [email protected]. Corrections are especially welcome.