Jan Steen – Physician Visiting a Sick Girl | Taft Museum Collotype Postcard

Early printed lithographs and Real Photo Postcards (RPPC) offer rich historical detail, documenting towns, events, family portraits, and everyday life. Disaster postcards depicting floods, fires, train wrecks, and other catastrophic events, were a popular way to share news as photographs could quickly be turned into postcards. Many RPPCs are scarce and unique due to their small‑batch production.

Pre‑Linen Litho cards (c. 1907–1929) were printed using smooth chromolithography and tinted halftone methods, producing soft, painterly views before the textured linen era. Linen postcards (c. 1930s–1950s) introduced high–rag‑content paper with a woven surface and bold saturated colors that reflected the optimism postwar travel culture. Together, these eras showcase the shift from early color printing.

Chrome postcards, introduced in 1939, feature glossy surfaces, vivid color, and photographic imagery made possible by modern color film processes. The term “chrome” derives from Kodachrome, Eastman Kodak’s groundbreaking color film. Mid‑century examples depicting motels, highways, city skylines, national parks, and tourist destinations are collected for their documentation of postwar American travel and roadside culture.