Editing Postcard (section)

=== 1840 to 1864 ===
[[File:Lipmancard.jpg|thumb|Lipman's Postal Card]]
Cards with messages have been sporadically created and posted by individuals since the beginning of postal services. The [[World's oldest postcard|earliest known picture postcard]] was a hand-painted design on card created by the writer [[Theodore Hook]]. Hook posted the card, which bears a [[penny black]] stamp, to himself in 1840 from [[Fulham]] (part of London).<ref name="Guinness World Records">{{cite web |title=Oldest picture postcard |website=Guinness World Records |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-picture-postcard |access-date=1 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="BBC"/> He probably did so as a practical joke on the postal service, since the image is a caricature of workers in the post office.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |date=2002-03-08 |title=Oldest postcard sells for £31,750 |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1862284.stm |access-date=2012-06-16}}</ref><ref>Arifa Akbar, "Oldest picture postcard in the world snapped up for £31,750", The Independent, 9 March 2002.</ref> In 2002 the postcard sold for a record £31,750.<ref name="BBC"/>

In the United States, the custom of sending through the mail, at letter rate, a picture or blank card stock that held a message, began with a card postmarked in December 1848 containing printed advertising.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pre History of the Postcard 1848–1872 |publisher=Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City |url=http://www.metropostcard.com/history1848-1872.html |access-date=2013-02-01 |archive-date=2017-10-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024165752/http://www.metropostcard.com/history1848-1872.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The first commercially produced card was created in 1861 by [[John P. Charlton]] of [[Philadelphia]], who patented a private postal card, and sold the rights to [[Hymen Lipman]], whose postcards, complete with a decorated border, were marketed as "Lipman's Postal Card".<ref name=":0">{{cite web |author=United States Postal Service |date=September 2014 |title=Stamped Cards and Postcards |website=United States Postal Service |url=https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/stamped-cards-and-postcards.pdf |access-date=2020-03-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190826134028/https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/stamped-cards-and-postcards.pdf |archive-date=2019-08-26}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> These cards had no images. While the United States government allowed privately printed cards as early as February 1861, they saw little use until 1870, when experiments were done on their commercial viability.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last=Petrulis |first=Alan |title=MetroPostcard History of Postcards 1873–1897 |website=www.metropostcard.com |url=http://www.metropostcard.com/history1873-1897.html |access-date=2020-04-01 |archive-date=2022-04-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411155629/http://www.metropostcard.com/history1873-1897.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":4" />