The Curious History of Postcards

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2021

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For many people sending a postcard is an enjoyable part of any seaside trip but rather than just being a novelty they were once a vital form of communication and often the quickest way to contact your friends and relatives. Dan is joined by Chris Taft and Georgina Tomlinson from the postal museum where a new exhibition marking 151 years of the British postcard is being launched (it was meant to be the 150th exhibition last year!). Chris and Georgina talk us through the surprising history of postcards from their inception and rise to prominence, to the coded messages sometimes contained on them and the link home they provided not just for holidaymakers but for soldiers on the frontlines as well.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit.
0:03.3	There's a heat wave here in the UK people heading to the beaches and from there,
0:07.6	they may choose to send a postcard.
0:10.2	Nowadays sending a postcard is sort of an nostalgic act.
0:13.4	It's got a statement piece.
0:15.0	Like buying some vinyl and just casually putting it on the record player.
0:19.8	Guys, it just sounds so much better, such better quality or so.
0:22.6	Whatever.
0:23.2	You're sending a postcard, you're listening to vinyl, it's a deliberate decision.
0:27.2	And I'm here for it.
0:28.2	I'm here for it.
0:29.0	I make my kids send postcards so they can say when they're a hundred years old,
0:33.0	living in a colony in Mars in 2110, nearly 200 years after the start of the First World War.
0:39.6	They can say, when I was a kid, I used to send postcards.
0:43.8	They'll be so grateful.
0:44.9	What an upbringing I'm giving them.
0:46.5	Anyway, to put it all about that range of history of postcards,
0:49.1	which will want so ubiquitous that houses all over the world were decorated in them.
0:53.0	I'm talking to two great friends at the Postal Museum, one of my favourite museums in London.
0:57.2	Chris Taft, Angel Gina Tomlinson.
1:00.5	I haven't seen Chris since I turned up at that museum a couple years ago,
1:04.2	having been in the back of an Uber with my son.
	...

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