Linen Postcards

Linen era postcards were introduced sometime around 1930, and lasted into the 1940's and some companies even until the 1950's. These "linen" cards were created with new technology that allowed prining on sturdy stock of high rag content. Linen postcards were seen to be a big improvement over previous postcards like the "White Border" era. The appeal of linen postcards is due in large part to their artistic colorful style, and wide variety of subjects, along with a relatively low cost.

Linen postcards had a 'textured' feel that is distinguished by parallel and intersecting lines on the front surface resembling linen cloth . The card stock could handle bright dyes for colofrul images. Linen postcards became very popular along roadside stands in the United States, and they offer tremendous historical information because they basically documented each phase in the building of America's highway system.

The best known publisher of the linen postcard era was Curt Teich. Linen postcards started being replaced sometime around 1940 by the newer chrome postcards, although many postcard companies continued to produce linen cards through the late 1950's. Real Photo black & white cards continued also continued to be produced through this era.