POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST

1915 White Border Era Postcard

In TINTED HALFTONE Printing in Matte Finish

From a Black-& White (B&W) Original

TOPIC

New Bureau of Engraving & Printing

Washington, D.C.

In 1914, a new, larger facility on 14th Street, later known as the Main Building, became the home of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing.

Date

ERA

White Border Era (1915-1930)

 Most United States postcards were printed during this period.  To save ink, publishers left a clear border around the view, thus these postcards are referred to as “White Border” cards.  The relatively high cost of labor, along with inexperience and changes in public taste, resulted in the production of poor-quality cards during this period.  Furthermore, strong competition in a narrowing market caused many publishers to go out of business.

Printer

Curt Teich Co. 1898-1978
Chicago, Illinois

Curt Teich was already working as a lithographer in Lobenstein, Germany when he emigrated to Chicago in 1895. He would start his own firm in 1898 concentrating on newspaper and magazine printing. While he was an early publisher of postcards, he did not begin printing them in number himself until 1908.

By the 1920’s he was producing so many postcards with borders that they became recognized as a type dubbed White Border Cards. Curt Teich was an early pioneer of the offset printing process having started using offset presses in 1907.

His innovations in this printing technique directly led to the production of what we now call Linens by the early 1930’s. While they produced many cards during World War Two, they also aided the war effort by printing many military maps.

Although Curt Teich eventually turned management of the firm over to his son, he remained active in company operations throughout its history. After his death in 1974 the family business was sold to Regensteiner Publishers who continued to print cards at the Chicago plant until 1978. Afterwards the rights to the company name and processes were sold to the Irish firm John Hinde Ltd. Their California subsidiary now prints cards under the name John Hinde Curteich, Inc.

Publisher

Washington News Co. (1902-1958)

313 6th St. NW, Washington, D.C.

The Washington News Company was a publisher and distributor of regional view-cards. The Company was one of the earliest Washington, D.C. postcard publishers.

In 1930, paper with a linen-like texture came into common use, and the company took advantage of this new technology of using the tinted halftone printing process to add color to their view cards. High rag content created the textured surface of these cards.

The company patented their halftone process as “Colorchrome” process. Colorchrome postcards are remarkable for their saturated, bright palettes. The Washington News Company fully embraced these intense hues, producing striking images of the Capitol at night.

Distributor

Washington News Company
Washington, D.C.

Photographer

Size

Standard Size: 5 ½ X 3 ½ / 14cm X 8.9cm

Printing Technique

TINTED HALFTONE

In the tinted halftone printing process, a black-&-white (B&W) photograph would have a color pallet with several plates drawn in hand with different colors. Since these color plates were created by hand, there were many variations to how these postcards look.

Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size or in spacing, thus generating a gradient-like effect. In the hybrid process, the dots are usually smaller creating a clearer image.

CONDITION

Used /Posted

Corners and edges in fair condition.

Partial postal cancel on picture side.

Creases left corner and top left edge.

NO, tears, pinholes, smears, stains, smudges, or mold.