Border Style

This portion of the exhibit covers the two main styles of borders seen on postcards in the United States from 1920 to 1950: white border and no border (also known as “bleed”).

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A typical white border postcard.

White Border Postcards

Though postcards with white borders existed prior to World War I, they became much more prolific after the start of the war—so much so that 1915 to 1930 is known as the “White Border Period” of postcard history. With the start of the war, the United States lost access to superior printing technology in Germany, and the quality of postcards published in the U.S. fell. Along with it, the public’s interest in collecting postcards also fell. With a much lower demand for postcards, postcard publishers saved ink and paper by printing postcards that had white borders, which required fewer (and less precise) cuts and did not risk wasting ink.1

The United States’ entry into World War I and, later, the onset of the Great Depression brought a continued need for postcard publishers to save ink and paper as much as possible, so white border postcards remained a staple of the industry. Even after the end of the Great Depression, publishers like Curt Teich & Co. still valued economical and efficient production methods, so they continued to print postcards with white borders long after the end of the Great Depression.

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A "bleed" postcard.

Bleed Postcards

“Bleed” postcards, or postcards printed without any borders, are one of the main varieties of border styles (or lack thereof). Postcards without borders were more expensive to produce because they required multiple, precise cuts and more ink.2 These postcards became more prevalent after the Great Depression and World War II, particularly with advances in printing technologies.

Footnotes

  1. Smithsonian Institution Archivess, "Postcard History," Greetings from the Smithsonian: A Postcard Historyhttps://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/postcard/postcard-history (accessed September 1, 2018), and Jeffrey L. Meikle, Postcard America: Curt Teich and the Imaging of a Nation, 1931-1950 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016), 34.
  2. Alan Petrulis, "Glossary: B," MetroPostcard.comhttp://www.metropostcard.com/glossaryb.html (accessed September 1, 2018).
Border Style