Around 1900, postcards were Twitter, e-mail, Flickr and Facbooks all in one.

Drawing on one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of postcards anywhere, The Postcard Age traces how big historical and cultural themes of the modern era played out on the postcard’s tiny canvas.

A postcard craze swept the globe, giving rise to anecdotes about overburdened mail carriers who had to leave bags of cards undelivered. Many cards were thrown away after they had served their purpose. But the craze for buying and sending postcards was married to a craze for collecting them. Millions upon millions of postcards were never posted; instead, they were tucked into boxes and albums, unused and in mint condition.

Urban entertainments, the changing role of women, sports, celebrity, new technology, revolutionary artistic movements and the rise of nationalism were all fair subjects for miniature masterpieces. Many famous artists turned to the new medium, but one of the great pleasures and enigmas of postcards is that some of the most beautiful and interesting examples were made by artists whose names we barely know.

The almost 400 postcards represented in this book provide a vivid picture of the concerns, trends and pastimes of another era as well as a sampler of the artistic and historical riches offered by these messengers of the modern age.