Postcardist

This show is a master class on postcard collecting. In this interview with Mark Routh, we cover topics from the collecting of postcards about the Titanic, the bombing of cities during World War I, and Dr. Who.

Mark Routh, is a well-known postcard collector in the UK, who collects and studies the history of postcards. Plus, he's written a monthly column for more than 25 years in the very highly regarded Picture Postcard Monthly.

You can find Mark's website here.

Topics we cover in this Postcardist master Class:

• Victorian era of postcards
• How often were postcards delivered in early 1900s
• Where people bought postcards back in the day
• WWI battle photograph postcards
• Cachets on cards…censor cachets in WWI
• Titanic postcards
• Postcard fairs
• Display boards
• Dr. Who postcards
• Collecting postcards around television
• Postcard insurance
• Falklands War…Mark wrote a book
• The very first postcard
• How to archive postcards

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Music in this episode:

Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin, licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License. Music sourced from Free Music Archive.

Mail artist Chloe McHenry creates collectible letters and postcards. Then she puts stamps on them and entrusts her work to the postal service.

In this episode, I talk with Chloe about how she started creating mail art, her experiences with being a penpal on Reddit, and how she pays attention to details that end up in her art.

You can find Chloe's work on her Instagram page (parcel.tongue).

Click here to see more details on the Postcardist website.

Music in this episode:

Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin, licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License. Music sourced from Free Music Archive.

What if you collected postcards the majority of your life, then woke up one morning and decided to give away all those postcards? One at a time.

That's what this week's guest did. Frank Boscoe created an Instagram site where he documents his Great Postcard Giveaway. Frank asks people to DM their address and he sends them a postcard from his collection. Simple as that. One a day until they're gone.

I became fascinated with Frank's story as I follwed him on Insta. But when he mentioned he was going to present a PechaKucha talk about his postcard giveaway, I knew I had to hear more.

And am I ever glad I did. You will be, too. Frank is a fascinating guy, and he started out the show with a quiz in the style of Will Shortz that really got me thinking. He also recommends an app — Unfade Pro — that's taken my postcard photography up a notch. And he created a special version of his PechaKucha talk for Postcardist listeners.

Click here to see more details on the Postcardist website.

Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin, licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License. Music sourced from Free Music Archive.

Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Music sourced from Free Music Archive.

Good luck, we're all counting on you, from the movie Airplane, sourced under YouTube standard license.

Swing and a miss, the call by Harry Kalas calls the Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series in 1908, sourced under a YouTube standard license. All rights reserved by MLB.

There are 347 free-standing USPS blue mailboxes in Seattle. And photographer David Peterman took a photo of every single one of them and posted those photos over the course of a year.

In this episode, I talk to David about how the Mailboxes of Seattle project got started, how he planned his photography, and what it was like taking selfies with mailboxes. Did anyone pay attention? I did.

This story requires visuals. You can see David's photos on his site mailboxesofseattle.com. I posted a few select photos and the transcript from this show on thepostcardist.com.

Music transitions for this show is called Japanese Prog by Rushus. The music is licensed under a Creative Commons license. You can listen to Rushus' album Stories here.

This week I talk to Justine Burt, who is a filmmaker, historian and itinerant traveler. The conversation starts with a story of Justine's discovery of an obscure postbox on a far-flung island. Which leads us to talking about other postboxes, how mail gets delivered, and where Justine has found postcards in her travels around the world.

Speaking of around the world, we talk about Nellie Bly, the investigative journalist, who in 1889 traveled around the world in 72 days. Did she send postcards? Let's find out.

We also talk about the messaging in postcards and cook up a business idea based on a "Wish You Were Here" message.

Show links:

Check out The Postcardist website

Follow Postcardist on Instagram

The Isle of Harris

Nellie Bly

Postboxes from Around the World

In this episode, we talk with the writer Sara Wilson, who gives us tips on short-form writing, offers ideas for what should go on the back of the postcard, and how to make your postcard memorable.

You can find Sara's work on Sara-Writes.com. And keep your eye out for the book she's writing now.

Not quite the same thing as Friends With Benefits, but longer lasting. Many people collect postcards; fewer collect FWBs.

This episode is about postcards I got from my friends over the past year. You'll hear about postcard artists, the history of Toronto and the discography of The Beatles. Plus, you'll hear postcard sound effects.

Postcard collecting is the third largest collector's group in the world. And collectors are called deltiologists. Do you know why? In this episode you'll find out. You'll also learn about the hidden meaning of stamp placement; and how to make sure your postcards arrive in the best condition. Did I mention "prison pen pals"? I talk about those, too.

One sunny Sunday afternoon. One thousand postcards. Fifty people. And an idea: cast some love out into the world on a postcard. In this episode, we go to an event put on by the Love Hearts Project, where a large group of people gathered to support the project and show some love by writing postcard love letters.

We interview the creator of Love Hearts Project, Alex Krohn, along with three participants in the postcard love letter event.

This is postcard writing at its very best: social, energetic and collaborative. Plus...you'll get to meet some very interesting people. And isn't that what postcards are all about?

Passive-aggressive postcards pack a punch. In just a few lines, the writer can foist guilt on the reader. "I haven't heard from you; in case you care, I'm very sick." Or a card can say, "Why haven't you written?" Or worse: don't write to me again.

In this episode, Frank Roche is joined by Lori Feldman. They talk about passive-aggressive postcards from the early 1900s and how there are many similarities to modern communication. Not much has changed...hurt and indirect communication still exist. But in the Golden Age of Postcards, the burn lingered longer.

Bonus content: you also get to hear about extrusions, bathyscaphs and a hospital in Excelsior Springs, Missouri that had a particular specialty.