The Grandmother Of Email: Vintage Easter Postcards

A postcard — originally called an “open letter” — is a type of mail sent without an envelope. The first postal cards appeared in Austria on October 1, 1869. They were expensive at first, so people treated them as small treasures, handling them with care.

By the late 19th century, advances in color printing in Britain made illustrated postcards cheap and widely available — including festive Easter designs. Prices dropped, and Easter postcards became hugely popular almost overnight. Suddenly, anyone could send loved ones a beautifully illustrated, hand-signed holiday greeting. People saved and collected them for years, tucking them into albums and drawers.

At AdmiGram.com, we can easily imagine how much joy these little cards brought our great-grandparents a hundred years ago — a small, bright sign that the holiday was on its way.