Birthday postcard

The first postal message appeared in Mesopotamia about 5 thousand years ago. People used letters to convey various types of information. Payment for delivery services was made by purchasing stamps that were affixed to the envelopes. In 1844, the first telegram was sent. This was done by the famous inventor of the alphabet consisting of 5 characters, Samuel Morse. The text of the first telegram was short - it said: “What has God done?” Postcards with color pictures appeared thanks to the tradition of sending Christmas greetings to family and friends. One of the first was painted by the English artist William Dobson in 1794. Inventor and businessman Henry Cole ordered 1,000 cards with a picture of his family and Merry Christmas greetings for his relatives and friends in 1843. They were a cardboard sheet measuring 9 x 14 cm. However, this did not become an epoch-making event and the reason for the establishment of World Postcard Day. The form for writing an open letter in our usual form appeared towards the end of the 19th century. On its front side there was the emblem of the postal service and a rectangle for a stamp. On the back there was space for writing text. The birthday of the postcard, which forever remained in history and became an international holiday, is considered to be October 1, 1869. It was on this date that the world’s first postcard with a stamp was printed in the Vienna printing house. Previously, open letters were sent only in envelopes. The texts of the messages on the front side of postcards after the start of using thematic drawings and photographs were standard: “Merry Christmas!”, “Congratulations!”, “I give to the one I love,” “Dear girlfriend.” However, there were also cards with text written in advance on behalf of the sender. So, during the Russian-Japanese War of 1905-1907. soldiers of the Land of the Rising Sun sent home postcards with the following content: “I inform you that I am alive and well. I am not providing an address, because I don’t know where I will be tomorrow, but your letters will reach me if you correctly rewrite everything that is printed on the postmark ". The 1925 Universal Postal Congress established an international standard for postcards. Its size has increased compared to the original to 10.5 x 14.8 cm. Cards of original shape and size have left their mark on the history of postal messages. So, in the 1920s. tourists vacationing in Crimea and other Black Sea resorts sent home postcards in the form of wood sheets with a stamp sewn onto them. This fact is mentioned in an English philatelic magazine. The largest postcard, with an area of ​​more than 400 m2 and weighing almost 120 kg, was received by the Siberian Communications Museum in 2007. The project of its creation was timed to coincide with the City Day of Novosibirsk. Another giant postal card was sent in December 2019 to the address of the residence of Father Frost, located in Veliky Ustyug. A postcard with an area of ​​several m2 and weighing 30 kg was drawn by young artists from St. Petersburg. The field of collecting, called philocarty, studies and systematizes this type of mail. The peak of popularity of this hobby occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century. At this time, a mass production of postcards was launched on various topics (geography, history, technology, sports, art), which were distinguished by high artistic and printing performance. Their electronic analogues today, which users of instant messengers and social networks like to send, are inferior to printed products of 100 or even 20 years ago in terms of aesthetic content and depth of content. Ancient postcards are part of the country's historical and cultural heritage, a calling card of the time of their creation. They are a kind of bridge that transmits ideas and life values ​​from one generation to another. The birthday postcard encourages you to remember this.