Undivided Back Postcards

Until May of 1898, The Post Office was the only establishment allowed to print postcards in the United States, but on May 19th 1898, Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act which allowed private companies to produce postcards. However, the private companies were not allowed to call their cards "postcards", because of the word "post" being affiliated with the Post Office, so these private printers and publishers called their postcards "souvenir cards." These cards were to be labeled as "Private Mailing Cards." This was changed in December of 1901, and private companies were now permitted to use the word "postcard." Still, the back of the postcards was only to be used to write an address, and citizens were only permitted to write on the front of the postcard. This was known as the "undivided back" era of postcards (see pictures below for example of "undivided back" and "divided back" postcards).

On March 1st, 1907 the Post Office began allowing private citizens to write on the back side of a postcard. It was on this date that postcards were allowed to have a "divided back" that provided two sections on the back. One section was for writing an address, and another section for writing a note.

UNDIVIDED BACK:

DIVIDED BACK: