Two postcards “Art” both undivided back – one faux divided back

08/27/2015

In memoriam, Kathleen Evans, artist

Here are two instances of the same postcard titled “Art”.  Both are undivided back postcards, number 118 (front lower left) and COPYRIGHT 1906 S. S. PORTER, CHICAGO (front lower right), with ANGLO SERIES PUBLISHED BY A. H. printed along the back left edge.

Being printed in 1906, at a time when a message on the back of the post card was prohibited, and only the address was allowed to be written on the back of the postcard (commonly referred to as the undivided-back postcard era or UDB postcard era), these postcards were printed without a vertical line in the center of the back of the card.

Here are the front and back images of the unused “Art” postcard:

FRONT OF UNUSED UDB “Art” POSTCARD

BACK OF UNUSED UDB “Art” POSTCARD

Now, here are the front and back of the “Art” postcard that was postmarked on October 8, 1907:

FRONT OF USED FAUX-DB “Art” POSTCARD

BACK OF USED FAUX-DB “Art” POSTCARD

At first glance, the second “Art” postcard appears to be  a divided-back postcard, but it is, in fact, the same undivided-back “Art” postcard as shown in the unused copy of “Art”.  Effective March 1, 1907, the U. S. Post Office allowed the left side of the back of a postcard to contain a message, with the right side of the postcard reserved for the name and address of the addressee.  The sender of this postcard, one  “M. E. G.”, took advantage of that fact, and created a vertical line with the fountain pen being used to pen the written message.  It took quite a while for people to get used to writing a message on the back of a postcard, even though allowed to, and even though the postcard might have been printed with the vertical divider line on the back.  So I give M. E. G. credit for being bold enough to create her own (for some reason I think that M. E. G. is a female) divided-back postcard, just seven months after the postal regulations were changed.

Tags: divided back, Kathleen Evans, S S Porter, undivided back