The picture postcard, with a graphic image on one side and a blank space for a message and an address on the other, made its debut in the late nineteenth century. Before telephones (see entry under 1900s—The Way We Lived in volume 1) were in widespread use, the postcard provided a quick and inexpensive way of sending short messages, either for business or social purposes. For more than one hundred years, vacationers have typically mailed postcards of scenes from faraway destinations to impress the "folks back home," often accompanied with clichéd messages like "Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here." Another familiar phrase, "pretty as a postcard," has been used to describe a setting that is pretty enough to be featured on a postcard. Businesses have long used postcards for advertising purposes, and musicians or record labels commonly use them to promote new recordings or club...