Paper Postcard Unit Study

Update: I'm resurrecting this old homeschool unit study as I learned that the second annual postcard show came to our area  June 23 and 24, 2017. Click here for more details!

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Our son needed a community service project to do. As I didn’t drive and he wasn’t of age, yet, to obtain his student driving permit, I scouted around to find something he could do from home. I devised a Paper Postcard Unit Study (ie card ministry) after a little study of my own. He read about the beginning of writing, the postal service and in addition, studied art history. And created art postcards weekly for a period of about 6 months to mail to church members and his youth group.

We came up with several techniques that could be used to make his art postcards. Note that postal regulations have changed - art cards must be flat to send by regular postcard rates; bumpy cards must pay extra postage. These were some of the techniques he employed to design his cards with: applique, blow markers (watercolor markers - like air brushing), calligraphy, collage (magazine cutouts, stickers, etc.), color me (black & white), comic drawing, construction -- paper engineering, crayon rubbings, crosswords or word puzzles, glitter, graphing, ink blotting, mosaic (bits of colored paper), painting, pen & ink drawing, pressed flowers, rubber stamping, scratch pictures, silhouettes, spin painting, sponging, stenciling, stickers, watercolor (be sure to spray w/ a fixative), string or marble painting, and so on.

To get started in a similar study, see my unit study below:

Vocabulary:

acid-free, advertising cards, artist, comic, commemorative, deltiology, ephemera, First Class Mail, lithography, linen, mechanical cards, note, novelty, paper engineering, photo-chrome printing, postmark, postal stationery, postcard, stamp, topical, viewcards

Related Scripture for Memorization/Penmanship Practice:

Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:15-16; 2 Kings 19:14; 2 Chronicles 2: 11; Esther 9:30; Psalm 119:103; Proverbs 15:30 & 16:24; Proverbs 25: 11, 25; Ecclesiastes 12:10; Isaiah 52:7; John 1:1; Acts 15: 30-31; 2 Corinthians 3:2-3; 2 Corinthians 10:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:15 & 3:17; and 2 John :12.

May Read About:

Read an encyclopedia or books on advertising cards, the alphabet, biographies of cardmakers/illustrators (Sam Butcher, Betsy Clark, Mary Engelbreit, Kate Greenaway, Bessie Pease Gutman, Holly Hobbie, Charlotte Spiers), cachets, card companies (Ambassador, Gibson, or Hallmark Cards), card poets/verse (Helen Steiner Rice); Christmas cards, ink, mailboxes, Mother’s/Father’s Day, parchment, paper, papyrus, pencils, pens, Pony Express, postcards, postmarks, the postal service, printing, printing companies (Currier & Ives), rubber, rubber stamping, stamp collecting, trading cards, Valentine cards, vintage postcard collections; value guides, woodblock printing, writing, envelope history, and so forth.

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln had a copy book or scrapbook in which he kept sayings/quotes/poems that he liked? Did you know he wrote at least three poems?

Interesting Books:

1. Addressing for Automation: A Study Guide (Grades 5-8) (free from US Postal Service)

2. A History of Valentines. By Ruth Webb Lee. New York; 1952.

3. Ambassador of Sunshine. (abt. Helen Steiner Rice 1900-1981). By Ronald Pollitt & Virginia Wiltsie. Published: 1994. OR: In the Vineyard of the Lord. By Helen Steiner Rice as told to Fred Bauer. 1979.

4. Art Postcard Books from Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, NY 11501-3582

5. Bessie Pease Gutmann: over 50 Years of Published Art. By Karen Choppa. 1998

6. Centennial Handbook of the First Issue Postal Card. By Charles A. Fricke. 1973.

7. Child-Size Masterpieces.(series) By Aline D.Wolf (curriculum using Art postcards)

8. Gift of a Letter. By Alexandra Stoddard. 1990.

9. Holy Cards. by Barbara Calaman & Sandra Dipasqua. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004.

10. Mailbox Ministry: Greeting Cards that Share the Faith. Sue Banker. Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, NY; 2009.

11. Mail Memories: a Pictorial Guide to Postcard Collecting. By John M. Kaduck. 1971

12. Mary Engelbreit: The Art and the Artist. By Patrick Regan (b. 1952 - ?)1996.

13. Postcard Collector Annual: Commemorating 100 Years of the Postcard. By Deborah Lengkeek. 1993

14. The Alphabet Makers, by Hyatt Moore, The Museum of the Alphabet, Waxhaw, NC, 1991

15. The Complete Guide to Greeting Card Design & Illustration. By Eva Szela. North Light Books, Cincinnati, OH; 1994.

16. The Encyclopedia of Antique Postcards. By Susan Brown Nicholson. 1994.

17. The History of the Christmas Card. By George Buday. Omnigraphics, Detroit, MI.; 1992.

18. The Picture Postcard & Its Origins. By Frank Staff. 1967.

19. The Rubber Stamp Album. By Joni K. Miller & Lowry Thompson. Workman Pub., 1978.

20. The Scrapbook in American Life. By Patricia P. Buckler, Katherine Ott, & Susan Tucker.

21. The Trade Card in Nineteenth-Century America. By Robert Jay. University of Missouri Press; Columbia; 1987.

22. The United States Postal Service: An American History (1775-2002) (free from US Postal Service)

23. Valentines: A Loving Remembrance. By Jean P. Favalora. Lark Books, 1995.

24. When You Care Enough. By J. C. Hall. (1891-1982). Published: 1979, reprinted 1992

25. Here Lies Kansas City: A Collection of Our City’s Notables and Their Final Resting Places. By Wilda Sandy. 1984. [Joyce C. Hall (1891-1982) of Hallmark Cards].

26. Splitcoast Stampers Postal Poetry Thread

27. Philatelic Genealogy
28. Raphael Tuck and Sons Database of Postcards

Music:

The Letter (1967). Written by Wayne Carson Thompson and made famous by The Box Tops and their singer, Alex Chilton.

Field Trips:

1. Greeting Card or Printing Companies:

2. Hallmark’s Visitor’s Center, Crown Center,  2500 Grand Ave, Kansas City, MO.

3.  Mary Engelbreit, St. Louis, MO.

4. Gift, Card, Rubber Stamping, Scrapbook, and Stationery Shops

5. Postal Museums Collections

6. National Postal Museum at the Smithsonian 

7. Postmark Museum

8. Post Offices

9. University Libraries and Archives (Post Card and Letter Collections)

10. Art Museums

11. Post Crossing; an online postcard swapping site.

Holidays:
#NationalCardandLetterWritingMonth -- April

National Postcard Week = first week in May.

Timeline:

3000 BC = Courier Runners

1500 = Semite Clay Tablets

1000 = Phoenician Alphabet

190 = Parchment & Egyptian Papyrus

50 = Cuttlefish Ink

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105 A.D = Chinese Paper

500 = Chinese/Japanese Stencil

635 = Quill Pen

740 = Wood Block Printing

1040 = Movable type printing

1400s = European Woodblock Printed Cards

1450 = Gutenberg Printing Press

1466 = Master E.S. from Strasbourg New Year Greeting Card

1565 = pencils

1639 = US Post

1683 = London Penny Post

1690 = 1st US Paper Mill, Germantown, PA.

1700s = Engraved or woodcut printed advertising cards; Rubber Eraser

1775 = Benjamin Franklin, printer & 1st US Postmaster General

1792 = Color printing

1799 = Scraps (die-cut glossy printed paper images)

1829 = Harvey/Thompson Anniversary card

1834-1896 = William Morris design era

1839 = Goodyear's Vulcanized rubber

1840 = Postage stamp; Sunday School Scriptural text & reward cards

1841 = Crayon By Currier & Ives

1843 = Lithograph Printed Cards

1851 = Warren de la Rue (1815-1889) invented envelope-making machine

1856 = Chemical dyes

1858 = Street Letter Boxes

1860 = Pony Express

1861 = Brass US revenue mechanical wheel hand stamp; Lipman postcard; 1 cent postal rate

1862 = Printed playing cards; Mourning Cards by L. Prang & Co.

1873 = 1st shipment of rubber stamps from US to Peru; 1st US Postal Cards; typewriter

1875 = Louis Prang's US Cards

1884 = Excelsior Stamp Pad; fountain pen

1890 = Sign Markers (alphabet stamps)

1893 to 1918 = Postcard's highlight era

1900s = Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Wildlife Trading Cards

1902 = Kodak Photograph Cards

1911 = First Marking-device Trade Convention, Chicago, IL.

1911 = Marking Device Association

1912 = Kewpie postcards by Rose
1912 = Joyce C. Hall of Hall Brothers publishes his own postcards of Kansas City sights.

1918 = Air Mail

1928 = Voter stamped hands

1930s = Louis Waynai's hand-stamped Bible

1938 = Bethlehem, PA. Christmas postal cachet

1950s = Correspondence Art; Xerox Photocopy

1953 = White House Christmas Cards

1958 = Dial-a-Phrase stamps

1963 = Zip Codes

1967 = Polymer clear stamps

1972 = All Night Media

1974 = Hero Arts

1974 = International Stamp-Art Exhibit, Paris

1977 = Rubberstampede

1979 = Dee Gruenig/Posh Home Parties

1983 = Posh Impressions Rubber Stamp Store

You might like to see these too!:
Club Posh
Dee Gruenig & Posh (YouTube Playlist)
Fave Crafts. 

Originally published on blog: Jan 3, 2011

updated 9/26/2020. Compiled by Dolores J. Rush