Barry Hepsley | Home

Early Airline Postcards Picture postcards became a craze around 1904-5. People would not go anywhere without buying a postcard and sending it to a friend or relative. I collected these early postcards for many years before discovering airline postcards. A friend of mine showed me a postcard of the first scheduled airline at a postcard show and told me it was from 1914. This made me curious because that meant that the whole history of passenger air travel should be available in souvenir picture postcards. I started buying some early postcards related to the airlines and was hooked. The early airplanes were fascinating to me as were the different types of postcards. There were postcards issued by the airlines, cards showing views of airports, as well as scenic views and artwork. Eventually I settled on postcards of basically the first 50 years of passenger air travel. I've cut off my collection with postcards made mostly prior to 1960. There are many great airline related postcards in the 1960's but I decided to stick to the first 50 years. Starting in the 1970's there was a flurry of airline postcards made for collectors which were not available to passengers at airports or from the airlines. This type of card I was not interested in plus I liked the early airplanes better than the modern jets. When is the last time you went on a trip, bought a postcard at the airport and mailed it after your flight? The souvenir postcard craze of 1904-5 has fizzled out! The number of postcards showing airplanes has multiplied significantly since the 1970's and the numbers of collectors of those cards has kept pace. There are many quality colorful postcards of airplanes still being made. I predict that every photo ever taken of an airliner will be eventually made into a postcard for collectors. That is fine. You should collect what you like. For this site there will be very few postcards made after 1959. The exceptions are cards in a series that started prior to 1960 and ran into the early 1960's and a small group of airport cards from the 1960's. Most all the cards will be made 1959 or earlier. I'll start with an introduction to the various types of antique postcards and then my collection. Enjoy! 1 - 11 of 11 Total.

1. Introduction to Antique Postcards  If you are not familiar with old postcards here is an introduction to the various kinds of antique postcards related to the airlines. One of the best ways to gain knowledge and an appreciation of old postcards is to collect postcard views of the town where you grew up or the town you live in now. You will find postcards from before airline postcards started, postcards of all the different types, and you will learn what cards are rare and which ones are really common. 5 Albums Shared Folder 2. Airlines of the United States  Postcards of many types related to the airlines of the United States. The albums are organized with three very early airlines in the top spots, St. Petersburg-Tampa Air Boat Line, Aeromarine West Indies Airways, and the Lawson Air Line, followed by other airlines in alphabetical order. Postcard wise two airlines stand out as far as the number of postcards available both issued by the airline and others. They are Pan American Airways with their early Real Photo postcards, flying boats postcards from Florida, and postcards made by others at airports around the world. The other is United Airlines with their Black and White series from 1932 - 1940 the earliest of which are also Real Photo postcards. United Airlines also took food preparation very seriously hiring a number of chefs from Europe and producing menu postcards from 1939 into the 1960's. There may be more United Airlines menu postcards than all the other airlines put together. There are many very rare airline postcards from the early German Zeppelins through the 1930's from many different airlines. With the growth of the airlines their postcards from the 1940's and later are much more common. 20 Albums Shared Folder 3. Airlines of the Rest Of the World  The airlines outside the United States have an incredible number of interesting and historical postcards. A good selection of those are shown here. 10 Albums Shared Folder 4. Airports of the United States  There are many interesting postcards of airports. A selection of them show airliners and many of them do not. 3 Albums Shared Folder 5. Airports of the Rest of the World  Like the postcards of the U.S. there are many great postcards of foreign airports. Postcards from my collection are shown here. 3 Albums Shared Folder 6. Cards by Local Photographers & Others  Local photographers all over the world made postcards both for the airlines and for sale to the public at airports. These are my favorite type of airline postcards. Included are some cards issued in a series where the photographer is not known. 4 Albums Shared Folder 7. Poster Style & Other Artist Drawn PC's  Many airline posters were also made as postcards. Airlines from all over the world produced cards like that. In addition to the poster section I've added albums for other airline related postcards that were artist drawn as well as postcards showing airline route maps. Lastly I've included a small group of U.S. government postal cards that that were used by several airlines to advertise some aspect of their business. 4 Albums Shared Folder 8. Aircraft  One of the popular ways to collect airline postcards is by aircraft used by the airlines. Seven of the important early airliners are listed below along with all of the cards of that aircraft in my collection. In addition there is an album showing one card per aircraft showing the best view of that plane that I have. So far there are examples of 114 different aircraft. 7 Albums Shared Folder 9. Airline Menu & Food Postcards  Many airlines made a major effort to provide great meals for their passengers in flight. United Air Lines in particular issued a large number of menu postcards. 3 Albums Shared Folder 10. Airline Covers  My collection is almost all airline postcards but along the way I purchased some stamped covers with references to airlines that I found interesting. Here is a nice group of those covers. 1 Albums Shared Folder 11. Nonsense  Nothing in this section is true. The albums were created by a complete idiot. He offered me $3.00 if I would add this to the site and I jumped at the chance to make some money. Everything here is absurd so don't waste your time here!!!!!!!!!!! Actually the whole purpose of this folder is for you to hopefully enjoy postcard collecting and don't take it too seriously. Have fun with it. Old postcards are a great thing to collect! 3 Albums Shared Folder

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