"How Much" says "When."

1¢     1870

2¢     1917

1¢     1919

2¢     1925

1¢     1928

2¢     1952

3¢     1958

4¢     1963

5¢     1968

6¢     1971

8¢     1973

7¢     1975

9¢     1976

10¢   1978

12¢   3/1981

13¢   11/1981

14¢   1985

15¢   1988

19¢   1991

20¢   1995

21¢   2001

23¢   2002

24¢   2006

Well, all that changed over time.  Picture postcards used to be extremely popular especially when we were growing up.  I can't count the number of times I admired the wonderful photographs on the back of one of those things and turning it over to see, "Wish you were here!"  Picture postcards seem right in those exotic tourist destinations, but I guess it was parochial pride that generated all those postcards that illustrate the wonderful sights of just about every little town and hamlet as well as the larger cities.  And I guess historians will thank that parochial pride for documenting those wonderful sights.  The picture postcards of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are especially intriguing.  The Tri-Cities (or should that be "the Quad-Cities?") had its share of wonderful sights on those stiff little 4" x 6" cards.   Some of these have found their way into collections that dot the internet, and I offer these links to some of them because in the last week I have had 3 "forwardings" of the first link below.  There must be an interest in these scenes of "old timey" Alabama towns among many of our classmates.

Auburn U Library Collection

e-Podunk's Alabama

Sign of the Times?

I found these plaintive laments about the paucity of good picture postcards of our state that could be used to share with friends and family of European temporary residents who find that Alabama is indeed a place of beauty.  How can this be?  Is the postage discouraging the printing of nice Alabama postcards?