The new display in the Duke Library’s foyer showcases postcards. Special Collections and Archives houses several postcard collections: from Furman and the Greenville Woman’s College; from Greenville; tourist sites and locales from around South Carolina; and prominent buildings and sites from around the USA. We also have a collection of postcards from Camp Sevier, the First World War Army training camp in Greenville, as well as a large collection of women’s suffrage cards.

All date from the early-mid 20th century, a golden age of sorts for collecting and sending travel postcards. Postcards themselves were first created and sold in the 1870s. The U.S. Congress approved a penny postcard rate in 1872, allowing people to send a quick note on a card that was half as expensive as the standard 2-cent letter rate. Graphic designers began producing illustrated cards; new printing technologies soon allowed the inexpensive reproduction of photographs and color printing, and a growing tourist industry embraced this new genre of memento.

The bulk of our postcard collections have been digitized. The display in the foyer showcases some nice examples from Furman, Greenville Woman’s College, and Greenville, but there are many more treasures to be discovered in our digital Postcard Collection.