ABOUT THE VINTAGE COLLECTIONS
The goal of these special collections of erotic Postcards is to organize them by publisher and sequence whereby they gain meaning and provide insight into the models and erotic themes of the early 20th Century. Toward this goal the Postcards have been a) sorted by publisher, b) numbered with the numbers on the postcards, c) normalized to 1600 pixels in the longer dimension, and d) saved as uncompressed TIF and/or JPG files.
As these older sets become reunited together, they reacquire their lost narrative, and bring to life the models and ideas of an era, one not seen viewing random Postcards. Note that our goal is to accumulate collections at a standardized naming and size, and that the quality of images to fill in the missing varies widely.
The envelope of these collections includes beauty, glamour, romance, pastoral and allegorical themes, fashion, stage and burlesque stars, the boudoir, bath, and female nudity. Lesbian contact and kissing are rare. To whatever extent more explicit publishing existed, it was not to be found among the Parisian publishers who put their marks on postcards.
Throughout we attempt to present only one representative image of each postcard. Frequently we have the option of several choices, sometimes the scans are from separate postcards, sometimes the same JPG appears repeatedly, identifiable by a unique pattern of white dirt, tears, and water or mold damage. Sometimes this JPG has been recompressed and otherwise munged around. Our selection is based on these criteria: sharpness, compression (and recompression) damage and data loss, missing edges, and fullness of the postcard in the frame.
Frequently we encounter the same image in what appear to be a more native scan as well as an improved version. This can be a hard choice because the improved version is almost always more immediately useful, however to whatever extent it has been (in one’s opinion) over-corrected, then further corrections only complicate the compression. In these situations, we tend to provide only the usually thinner source file, because might one want to alter it, one can adjust its brightness and contrast as one best determines.
There is also no preference made as to postcards which are displayed out past their edges and those which have been cropped to their edges. Sharpness remains a goal in this choice. We believe that pictures that clearly display their edges have value to physical object collectors, whereas publishing (web or print) avoids extra white frame. Again, we are our best reference collections.
We do sometimes keep tint variations (e.g., a green tint vs a sepia), but remain uncertain if tinting occurs in the original postcard or a contribution of the scanner. We do keep all variations we have of hand-tinted color postcards, because they are often uniquely different and provide instant insight about the process. We also include hand-painted and non-painted examples when available, not knowing if the B&W scan is of a B&W postcard or a B&W scan of a color postcard.
When convenient we provide reverse sides, but that is more for the purpose of showing the back generically. Postcard scholars know that backsides can contribute to dating. Backsides are preferably named with their corresponding front side number, often a “B” in the file name. Depending upon how a sort works, backsides might appear either before or after their front. Generic backsides sink to the bottom of the list.
We tend to retain cards which have overprinting, often cute French phrases of romance, as well as any corresponding cards which do not.
Cards which have had numbers and/or marks removed and which can be attributed with confidence are named and numbered. Cards which belong to a studio and remain unnumbered are numbered “YYYY” with the possibility of future assignment. The more cards in a set, the more the puzzle pieces fit in.
Cards with stamps are usually left with the stamp displayed because the cancellations are evidence that a postcard existed at a certain date. In situations where we have the stamp removed that is also included.
We remind you that our goals here include providing useful research collections to those who study our past, such as historians and social scientists. That is why you will find images herein that are blurry, have been uprezzed, or otherwise malcontent; they are all we have at the moment. There are also images of excellent quality, eager for reproduction, cleaned of dirt and tears and at a resolution similar to that of the original postcard (e.g. 5.3” @ 300dpi = 1600 pixels). We hope to continue to expand these sets as more postcards become available to us and inferior examples are replaced with superior ones.
Postcard science aside, we hope that those of you who seek to discover the erotic elements of arousal, romance, and love can find insights, memes, and knowledge in these series. Perhaps over time a community of the World can upgrade these collections with high resolution scans, fill in the black spots, and enjoy beauty, eros, and history.