Scope and Contents
Conditions Governing Use
Conditions Governing Access
Preferred Citation
Arrangement
Biographical / Historical
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Processing Information
Related Materials
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Title: Advertising Cards, Greeting Cards, and Postcards
Identifier/Call Number: Coll2015-015
Physical Description:
11 Linear Feet
11 archive shoe boxes,
2 archive boxes,
1 flat archive box
Date (inclusive): 1900-2015
Date (bulk): 1980-2000
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.
Scope and Contents
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.
Conditions Governing Use
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.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.
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.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into three undated series:
Series 1. Advertising cards
Series 2. Greeting cards
Series 3. Postcards
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.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
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.
Related Materials
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Advertising fliers
greeting cards
Photographic postcards
Postcards
Printed ephemera
Gay erotica