Advertising Cards, Greeting Cards, and Postcards, 1900-2015, bulk 1980-2000

Summary

Abstract:

Advertising cards, greeting cards, postcards, postcard books, and other printed ephemera. The collection primarily documents twentieth century global lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and ally (LGBTQIA) aesthetics, culture and history as represented in commercial cards made to be collected or mailed to customers, family, or friends.

Extent:

11 Linear Feet 11 archive shoe boxes, 2 archive boxes, 1 flat archive box

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Advertising Cards, Greeting Cards, and Postcards, Coll2015-15, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection comprises correspondence artifacts consisting of printed graphics and ephemera including advertising cards, greeting cards, studio cards, postcard books and postcards documenting the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and ally (LGBTQIA) aesthetics, culture, and history. The collection includes both mailed and unmailed correspondence artifacts with tourist, souvenir, and graphic art intended for correspondence or private collection. The materials range from humorous cultural references to erotic imagery and text, as well as images of people, places and events that have a strong resonance within the homosexual consumer community.

Biographical / historical:

The collection reflects an evolution of communication in the gay community from covert to overt beginning with early 20th century photographic art reproductions with homoerotic subtext. A tacit respectability was accorded by the imprimatur of international museums which had capitalized on the pre-First World War postcard fad by retailing images of works of art in their collections. Nude classical sculpture and images with similar sexual undertones had been apparent in art magazines and American greeting cards since the late 19th century. Advances in color lithography allowed small publishers to keep pace with a growing market, and specialty risqué greeting cards appeared decades before the industry leaders began catering to niche consumers in the 1970's. The gay embrace of the printed format shadowed mainstream markets with the adoption and adaptation of popular culture iconography, from the easily shared or hidden pocket collectible dirty French postcard, to the subversion of subversion and stereotypes with humor, puns, double entendres, and innuendo of kitsch, camp imagery, and mail art later in the century. An increasingly ubiquitous gay aesthetic enjoyed the broader public's eventual acceptance of unabashedly straightforward non-straight erotic and radical imagery in highly visible commercial, retail, and fine art sold and mailed without a plain brown wrapper or adult content warning label.

Acquisition information:

The collection consists of correspondence artifacts separated from the ONE Archives’ Subject Files and augmented by subsequent non-archival donations.

Processing information:

The collection is an open and artificial collection processed by ONE Archives volunteers.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into three undated series:

Series 1. Advertising cards

Series 2. Greeting cards

Series 3. Postcards

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Related material:

The ONE Archives Subject Files collection has a variety of correspondence artifacts, most notably the advertisement mailers in the "Bars" section, and cards in the Lesbian Legacy Subject Files. The Dan Luckenbill Papers includes postcards with advertising, arts, erotica, and geographic subject items from the United States, Greece, Puerto Rico and Vietnam. The Sunny Bak Photography Collection Coll2013-037 includes examples of the artist's photographs of lesbian women and couples for 10% Productions greeting cards, and catalogs from G Gallery. Postcards and other ephemera illustrating cross-dressing from the 19th and 20th centuries are in the Ralph W. Judd Collection Coll2007-020 and the Andrew M. Schwartz Collection Coll2008-060. Mail art is included in the Orlando Gallery Records Coll2013-038 and the Woman's Building Records Coll2014-126. The Twice Blessed Collection Coll2010-003 includes Jewish lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender printed ephemera, while other collections such as the Ray L. Burns and Art Miyashima Photographs and Postcards collection have materials with a geographic or ethnic emphasis.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Gay erotica
Advertising fliers
greeting cards
Photographic postcards
Postcards
Printed ephemera

Restrictions:

The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Advertising Cards, Greeting Cards, and Postcards, Coll2015-15, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Location of this collection:

ONE Archives at the USC Libraries

909 West Adams Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90007, US

Contact:

(213) 821-2771

askone@usc.edu

Website