Is it wrong to use these antique postcards as postcards?
April 29, 2022 2:27 PM Subscribe
I have a big stack of antique postcards. I am someone who likes to send postcards. Is it wrong to use these postcards as postcards? Am I defacing history? Or should I go for it?
Most are WWI-themed, some are tourist postcards from upstate New York and Massachusetts, some have Catholic themes. They're mostly American, but a few show scenes from Belgium or France. Many are of Camp Devens. The oldest ones are pre-1907, most are from during WWI.
If you think it's wrong to use them as postcards: what the heck should I do with them?
Most are WWI-themed, some are tourist postcards from upstate New York and Massachusetts, some have Catholic themes. They're mostly American, but a few show scenes from Belgium or France. Many are of Camp Devens. The oldest ones are pre-1907, most are from during WWI.
If you think it's wrong to use them as postcards: what the heck should I do with them?
Best answer: They were made to be sent. Send them. Sending them in no more "defacing history" than letting them sit in an unseen pile in your house.
posted by jonathanhughes at 2:29 PM on April 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by jonathanhughes at 2:29 PM on April 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Ahhhhh! They will be SO HAPPY to be sent!
I am an atheist, but have deep Velveteen-Rabbit-feeling about objects - it makes me sad to see unused toys or unsent envelopes - the image from Frog and Toad Are Friends of little pencil stubs fallen behind the stove makes my heart ache - I imagine that the people to whom you send them will light up, will have a moment of legit TIME-TRAVEL JOY just holding them, Vonnegut-style, enjoying then and now and someday all at once.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 2:36 PM on April 29, 2022 [19 favorites]
I am an atheist, but have deep Velveteen-Rabbit-feeling about objects - it makes me sad to see unused toys or unsent envelopes - the image from Frog and Toad Are Friends of little pencil stubs fallen behind the stove makes my heart ache - I imagine that the people to whom you send them will light up, will have a moment of legit TIME-TRAVEL JOY just holding them, Vonnegut-style, enjoying then and now and someday all at once.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 2:36 PM on April 29, 2022 [19 favorites]
Best answer: Use them! Use your antique dishes! Put your vintage Pyrex in the dishwasher! Put the ancient sheets in the washing machine! Utilize the vintage tea towels until they get thoroughly stained!
Use them all until they're used up!
(Also plenty of people use vintage stamps in artistic ways on special mail, like wedding invites, so you could find some vintage stamps to use too!)
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:42 PM on April 29, 2022 [11 favorites]
Use them all until they're used up!
(Also plenty of people use vintage stamps in artistic ways on special mail, like wedding invites, so you could find some vintage stamps to use too!)
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:42 PM on April 29, 2022 [11 favorites]
Best answer: Saving things for the right time is certain to lead to regret.
posted by eotvos at 2:54 PM on April 29, 2022 [15 favorites]
posted by eotvos at 2:54 PM on April 29, 2022 [15 favorites]
Best answer: I feel the same way about some post cards I have that I bought in the 90s. I've recently started mailing them as thank you notes etc. People love to get them. It feels nice.
posted by fritley at 3:02 PM on April 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by fritley at 3:02 PM on April 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: It might be wrong if they were the last existent postcards of that era and even then I think it would depend on who you were sending them to. I can't think of any way it would be wrong given that that's not the case.
posted by bleep at 3:07 PM on April 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by bleep at 3:07 PM on April 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I am an archivist. If you need permission from someone who handles old stuff all day long to send these, you have mine! Sounds like fun!
posted by mostly vowels at 3:18 PM on April 29, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by mostly vowels at 3:18 PM on April 29, 2022 [9 favorites]
Best answer: I do this and don't see any problem with it.
posted by paduasoy at 3:29 PM on April 29, 2022
posted by paduasoy at 3:29 PM on April 29, 2022
Response by poster: > Use your antique dishes! Put your vintage Pyrex in the dishwasher! Put the ancient sheets in the washing machine! Utilize the vintage tea towels until they get thoroughly stained!
Ah, thank you for this comparison! I'm a quilter and want my quilts to be used as quilts.
If any of you Best Answerers want an antique postcard mailed to you: drop me a MeMail.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:36 PM on April 29, 2022 [7 favorites]
Ah, thank you for this comparison! I'm a quilter and want my quilts to be used as quilts.
If any of you Best Answerers want an antique postcard mailed to you: drop me a MeMail.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:36 PM on April 29, 2022 [7 favorites]
Best answer: Could scan/photograph them and put them up on Flickr or similar with description from the back. That way you can go ahead and send them as postcards, but also preserve the chance of the image being found by someone who would find it meaningful. (This applies mainly if it's something specific/obscure like a pic of a named small town or a specific event/person/etc. So like, the Elmira New York Firefighters Parade 1906, yes scan it; but probably not worth scanning if it's the millionth postcard of the Empire State Building or something.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:44 PM on April 29, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:44 PM on April 29, 2022 [8 favorites]
Best answer: I would without hesitation use these if possible. You will be disseminating rather than defacing history.
posted by Rash at 4:58 PM on April 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Rash at 4:58 PM on April 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I collect antique postcards in specific categories. There are zillions of them. Yes, use them. What a delight for the recipients.
posted by FencingGal at 5:10 PM on April 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by FencingGal at 5:10 PM on April 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
Maybe save one that you find especially awesome? I often frame postcards and hang them on the wall ... for a while. Then, when I'm ready for a change, I can put another postcard into that frame.
posted by amtho at 5:28 PM on April 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by amtho at 5:28 PM on April 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
I think adding messages and stamps and postal information is just depositing a layer of interesting information toon them. Better than having your kids throw them out when you die. Gee, that was a little dark, wasn’t it?’
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 7:51 PM on April 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 7:51 PM on April 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have a big stack of antique postcards. I am someone who likes to send postcards. Is it wrong to use these postcards as postcards? Am I defacing history? Or should I go for it?
My mom was an antique postcard collector. She donated some of her most precious (i.e. rarest or ones with stories behind them that might be unusual) to a library that specialized in those topics and saved the rest of them. I inherited them. I kept 2 or 3 that had special meaning to me, but I've been sending the rest. It's fun to get them out and about! I do the same thing with old unused postage. Most old stamps aren't really worth much but I know people (at the post office but also the recipient) enjoy seeing them scoot around and be useful. I think it's useful to develop an approach to most object that includes temporary and transitory enjoyment of them. Take a picture if you think you'd like to look at it again. And yes, send em off. Ummmm, actually did you say Devens? I grew up near there. Please send me one!
posted by jessamyn at 8:52 PM on April 29, 2022 [6 favorites]
My mom was an antique postcard collector. She donated some of her most precious (i.e. rarest or ones with stories behind them that might be unusual) to a library that specialized in those topics and saved the rest of them. I inherited them. I kept 2 or 3 that had special meaning to me, but I've been sending the rest. It's fun to get them out and about! I do the same thing with old unused postage. Most old stamps aren't really worth much but I know people (at the post office but also the recipient) enjoy seeing them scoot around and be useful. I think it's useful to develop an approach to most object that includes temporary and transitory enjoyment of them. Take a picture if you think you'd like to look at it again. And yes, send em off. Ummmm, actually did you say Devens? I grew up near there. Please send me one!
posted by jessamyn at 8:52 PM on April 29, 2022 [6 favorites]
Use them! (Is this the signup thread to receive a truly ancient postcard?)
posted by k3ninho at 12:08 AM on April 30, 2022
posted by k3ninho at 12:08 AM on April 30, 2022
I am a fellow sender and collector of antique postcards and I say definitely go for it! Put them in an envelope if you are concerned that they might get bashed up in the post.
If you don't want to write on the real things (or there's already writing on them), consider mounting them on blank card stock using those photo corners. If there are things written on the back, that's part of the story too. I am known among my friends for being the Weird Card-Sending Person.
Rummaging through a box of vintage postcards, I once found a century-old postcard addressed to a friend's grandmother. WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT? My friend was in his nineties and absolutely delighted to receive it, even though it was just a "Hi, how are you" message on the back.
I always look at postcards now wherever I am, just in case. There might be ones I sent as a kid floating around...
A couple of interesting sites out there are recording what's on vintage postcards. I love PostcardTree and Postcard from the Past.
posted by Orkney Vole at 2:46 AM on April 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
If you don't want to write on the real things (or there's already writing on them), consider mounting them on blank card stock using those photo corners. If there are things written on the back, that's part of the story too. I am known among my friends for being the Weird Card-Sending Person.
Rummaging through a box of vintage postcards, I once found a century-old postcard addressed to a friend's grandmother. WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT? My friend was in his nineties and absolutely delighted to receive it, even though it was just a "Hi, how are you" message on the back.
I always look at postcards now wherever I am, just in case. There might be ones I sent as a kid floating around...
A couple of interesting sites out there are recording what's on vintage postcards. I love PostcardTree and Postcard from the Past.
posted by Orkney Vole at 2:46 AM on April 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: > (Is this the signup thread to receive a truly ancient postcard?
My MeMail in-box is the signup thread!
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:39 AM on April 30, 2022
My MeMail in-box is the signup thread!
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:39 AM on April 30, 2022
Rummaging through a box of vintage postcards, I once found a century-old postcard addressed to a friend's grandmother.
OMG, that's wonderful. I have an eBay search set up for the tiny towns my parents grew up in on the off chance of something like this happening. I am choosing to pretend that the "Ellen" who wrote a postcard from Morning View, Kentucky, in 1906 is my great-grandmother.
Also, thanks so much for this question. I sometimes buy cards in lots to get one I want, so I have some that I don't really want, and I was never sure what I should do with them. (Is it OK for me to say people who'd like one can PM me? I don't have a huge amount, but I do have some.)
Honestly, I could write a post on just how cool old postcards are for the way they combine, art, history, and, when there's a message, a glimpse into human nature.
posted by FencingGal at 6:41 AM on April 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
OMG, that's wonderful. I have an eBay search set up for the tiny towns my parents grew up in on the off chance of something like this happening. I am choosing to pretend that the "Ellen" who wrote a postcard from Morning View, Kentucky, in 1906 is my great-grandmother.
Also, thanks so much for this question. I sometimes buy cards in lots to get one I want, so I have some that I don't really want, and I was never sure what I should do with them. (Is it OK for me to say people who'd like one can PM me? I don't have a huge amount, but I do have some.)
Honestly, I could write a post on just how cool old postcards are for the way they combine, art, history, and, when there's a message, a glimpse into human nature.
posted by FencingGal at 6:41 AM on April 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: > Better than having your kids throw them out when you die. Gee, that was a little dark, wasn’t it?
These were my grandfather's, so yeah, that's what we're working with: future generations not knowing what to do with them. I'll do my kids a favor and fling the postcards into the world.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:41 AM on April 30, 2022
These were my grandfather's, so yeah, that's what we're working with: future generations not knowing what to do with them. I'll do my kids a favor and fling the postcards into the world.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:41 AM on April 30, 2022
Absolutely use them. People will be so thrilled to receive them 🙂
posted by bunderful at 6:44 AM on April 30, 2022
posted by bunderful at 6:44 AM on April 30, 2022
Maybe make sure the recipients know they’re under no obligation to keep them once they’ve gotten all the joy out of them? Otherwise I anticipate an askme “my friends keep sending me really nice, special postcards that I think are antiques. Do I keep these forever? Do I need to donate them to a museum even though there’s a personal note about my meemaw’s new puppy on the back?”
posted by Secretariat at 8:22 AM on April 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Secretariat at 8:22 AM on April 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
Use them, but also know they will be put through some machinery, so if it looks like some might be too tender for that, those make good gift-bag enclosure cards, etc.
posted by childofTethys at 3:57 PM on April 30, 2022
posted by childofTethys at 3:57 PM on April 30, 2022
Response by poster: The postcards are in the mail, for people I had addresses for. If you want one (anyone reading this, not just people who commented), let me know your address. If you don't get one after, I don't know, some reasonable amount of time, let me know and I'll send you another; some are on the thinner side and might get eaten by modern mail-sorting machines.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:32 PM on May 2, 2022
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:32 PM on May 2, 2022
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