"Greetings From" - About Those Large Letter Postcards

 Curt Teich Large Letter Postcard for Williamsport Pa

"Large-letter", or "Greetings From", postcards began popping up in the U.S. in the late 1920s and became really popular from the 1930s through the 1950s.  These postcards featuring photos inside large letters spelling out the location, where a popular way, before the advent of computers and social media, to show off their travels to loved ones back home. 

Curt Teich , an immigrant and pioneer of the offset printing process, began his postcard company as early as 1898.  But it was in the 1930s that the firm took off with a new process, producing what would become a wildly successful design trend of bright, graphically illustrated linen postcards.

In Teich's Chicago studio, professionally taken, but somewhat dull black & white photos would be  retouched, usi everything from mechanical airbrushes to precision sable-tipped brushes.  The images were cleaned up, colorized, and details were sharpened.  They process made a nondescript or unattractive business look clean and bright, and small towns look perfect with dazzling skies in colorful hues.

Soon Teich added "Large Letter" postcards.   "So-called large-letter postcards weren’t new when a German immigrant named Curt Teich began producing colorful linen-textured versions in the early 1930s, but he “was kind of a genius,” said Will Hansen, curator of Americana at the Newberry Library in Chicago, home to largest public collection of Teich postcards in the United States.

Teich was not the only manufacturer of the large letter design, but he is one of the best known.   "Just as Henry Ford revolutionized automobile production, Teich’s company perfected a system of mass producing large-letter postcards based on the idea that no town was too small to include."

Although the idea was that "no town was too small", in reality, many small towns were featured only in a line of text above the letters of the state. Danville and Bloomsburg are an example of cards using the same text over the Large Letter Pennsylvania.

These postcards’ popularity in the 1940s, 50s and 60s was fueled by an obsession with the automobile and the adventure of road travel. Teich and his imitators used saturated colors and simplified scenes to paint an enticing view of mid-20th-century America.

His linen-style postcards depicted an optimistic view of America, creating a unique record of national tourism and documenting the U.S. landscape from its smallest towns to its grandest natural wonders. The cards—and Teich’s runaway success selling them—also reflect an era when a boom in highway construction and an uptick in auto sales were changing the way Americans worked, played, vacationed, and communicated with one another.

For non-collectors, sending the postcards to friends and family was an inexpensive way to show off their travel. Today, travelers pose in front of murals around the country that mimic the vintage postcards and share photos on social media. 

By the mid-1950s, the Teich aesthetic began to fade and was replaced with hyperrealist, photographic postcards.

Links to Large Letter Post Card Collections:

• https://www.pinterest.com/libraryofva/greetings-from
• https://vintagraph.com/collections/1940s-50s-greetings-postcards
• https://archives.newberry.org/repositories/2/resources/1282

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Sources:

• Quotes taken from - Part of a recurring Ap Press series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States.
• Library Of Virginia
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/immigrant-story-behind-classic-greetings-from-postcards-180970894/

Curt Teich Postcards

Established in 1898, the Curt Teich Co. was best known for its wide range of advertising and postcards of North America. By the 1920s, it was producing so many postcards with borders that they became recognized as a type dubbed “White Border Cards,” creating an “era.” Later, Curt Teich’s innovations in this printing technique directly led to the production of what we now call “linens” by the early 1930s.

History

Curt Teich emigrated to Chicago in 1895. He had worked as a lithographer in Lobenstein, Germany. In 1898, he founded the Curt Teich Company, concentrating on newspaper and magazine printing. He was an early publisher of postcards, but he didn’t begin printing them himself until 1908.

The company, which operated until 1978, was renowned for its production of postcards featuring various subjects, including North American scenic views, landmarks, events, and advertising. By the 1920s, it was producing so many postcards with borders that they became recognized as a type dubbed “White Border Cards,” creating an “era.”

Their U.S. factories produced a vast quantity of cards, making them the leading printer in the industry. Curt Teich Company pioneered the use of offset lithography, leading to the development of the popular linen-type postcard. The company aided the war effort during World War II by printing many military maps.

In 1974, the Teich Company was sold to Regensteiner Publishers, but it continued printing Teich postcards until its closure in 1978. Curt Teich’s contributions significantly impacted the postcard industry, leaving behind a rich legacy of artistic and historical significance. The Teich Company continued to operate in the same building and continued printing Teich postcards until 1978 when the rights to the company name and processes were sold to the Irish company, John Hinde Ltd. Their California subsidiary now prints postcards under the name John Hinde Curteich, Inc.