Make a plan, request your resources, and go see them firsthand!
Boston Public Library Print Department Postcard Collections holds nearly 165,000 cards, including the Tichnor Brothers Collection of roughly 25,000 linen-era office proofs and the Kattenburg Collection of about 19,000 cards organized by state, with strong coverage of Boston-area architecture and businesses. https://www.bpl.org/special-collections/
Curt Teich Postcard Archives Collection, Newberry Library, Chicago, is considered the largest public collection of postcards and related materials in the United States, estimated at 2.5 million total items including over 360,000 images produced by the Curt Teich printing company between 1898 and 1978. www.newberry.org/collection/research-guide/curt-teich-postcard-archives-collection
John and Jane Adams Postcard Collection, San Diego State University Special Collections, comprises roughly 200,000 postcards from around the world along with several thousand cards documenting San Diego County and California, donated by John and Jane Adams starting in 1989. digitalcollections.sdsu.edu/adamspostcards
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division holds several postcard collections including panoramic and city-view cards from roughly 1900 to 1965 and material tied to the National Photo Company Collection, searchable through its online catalog. www.loc.gov/pictures
Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City, founded in 1946, is the oldest continuously operating postcard club in the United States and hosts regular postcard shows devoted to deltiology, the study and collecting of picture postcards. metropolitanpostcardclub.com
Musée de la Carte Postale, Antibes, France, is a museum devoted entirely to postcards, with a permanent exhibition of several thousand cards from all eras and countries plus rotating themed exhibits, including examples of mechanical and pull-tab cards. museedelacartepostale.fr
National Trust Library Historic Postcard Collection, University of Maryland Libraries, contains about 20,000 postcards documenting localities across the United States dating from 1893 to the 1970s, with particular strength in New England, donated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1986. archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/1342
Smithsonian Institution Archives holds significant postcard material within its broader photographic and archival collections, documenting American history, science, and world’s fair and exposition subjects. siarchives.si.edu
TuckDB Postcards is a free, searchable database recreating the lost catalog of Raphael Tuck & Sons, once the world’s largest postcard publisher, whose London headquarters and company records were destroyed in the Blitz; a companion site, TuckDB Ephemera, covers the firm’s other paper goods. www.tuckdbpostcards.org
University of Delaware Postcard Collection comprises more than 2,000 digitized postcards of Delaware and the surrounding mid-Atlantic region, searchable by location and subject. library.udel.edu
University of Michigan William L. Clements Library holds the David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography, including over 66,000 digitized real photo postcards documenting Michigan locations from the 1840s into the mid-20th century. clements.umich.edu
University of San Diego Copley Library Special Collections holds more than 6,000 postcards documenting places of interest to twentieth-century travelers, built around the personal collections of May and Genevieve Clarke along with several smaller donated collections. digital.sandiego.edu/postcards
Werner von Boltenstern Postcard Collection, Loyola Marymount University, is one of the largest publicly accessible postcard collections in the United States, containing approximately one million postcards from around the world dating from the late 19th century to the present; von Boltenstern donated the collection in 1967. digitalcollections.lmu.edu/collections/werner-von-boltenstern-postcard-collection