Postcards deliver look back in time
Valentine's Day cards are common today, but what about Valentine's Day postcards?
A hundred years ago, sending postcards — including postcards for Cupid's favorite holiday — was extremely popular.
“In the day, they sent millions of Valentines on postcards,” said Larry Parisi of Center Township, a postcard collector who has published two books of postcards.
He said the time from about 1905 to 1920 was a golden age of postcards.
Pat Collins, director of the Butler County Historical Society, said that the use of postcards in the early part of the 20th century was an extremely common form of correspondance.
“This is how the people communicated. They didn't have telephones then,” Collins said.
Parisi has more than 1,000 postcards relating to Butler County, and many more that do not.
One valentine in his collection — postmarked Feb. 12, 1914 — has what Parisi said is a Dutch-theme, saying “A Valentine's Vish.” The card was sent to someone in Ohio, but there is no correspondance on the back to the card.
Another card in his collection is not strictly Valentine's Day related, but does feature a unique heart. It says “The Heart of Butler,” and features a red heart in the upper left corner. A small latch holds part of the heart to the body of the card and when that latch is opened, several small photos of Butler are revealed.
Over the years, Parisi has seen postcard correspondance decrease. He believes a big reason for that is the fact that cards cost more, and the postage costs more.
However, many postcards from the era have survived to this day — more so than greeting cards.
“For some reason, they saved and kept the postcards,” Parisi said.At the historical society, Collins has a collection of Valentine's Day cards from the first part of the 20th century.The collection includes several Valentine's Day postcards circa 1908 and 1909, all addressed for William Park of Valencia.One Valentine-themed postcard, postmarked Jan. 14, 1908, said “I got home safe.” The postcard has a 1-cent stamp.Collins said with no phones or communication of that nature at the time, people would send postcards or greeting cards for quick correspondance. In January, the Valentine's Day cards would be out, which explains why some of the cards saved do not have Valentine's Day correspondance on the back.“Mail in general was a way of life,” Collins said.The collection also includes three conventional greeting cards.All of the cards are in color. Two of the cards, which are not dated, denote that they are “Whitney-made.” That company closed in 1942.A third card features no correspondance other than the signed name “Isabel” on the inside. Collins said this likely was Isabel Shaw Adams, who was born in 1902 and who left her West Diamond Street house to the historical society in the 1980s.
