The first lettercards were made in Austria in 1869. The use of lettercards spread during the 1870s to most European countries. The idea behind lettercards was that you could save time and money on envelopes and wax as well as saving time by not being able to write long messages.

 

The postcards inherited the layout from lettercards with the address on the back and the text on the front. This is the reason you see many cards from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century with the text on the picture. During the first decade of the 20th century the card with the split backside with the address on the right and space for the text on the left was developed, first in Great Britain in 1902 and then slowly arrived in Sweden in 1905. In Lauri's collection the last card without separate space for text on the back side is from 1918.

 

Lettercards were also used to send receipts as can be seen in some of the cards here below. Click a card to open up the gallery!