A postcard is a snapshot in time. How long is a typical shutter speed? A small fraction of a second? In the brief time the shutter is open, light streams through the aperture and lands perfectly focused on the exposed film. Then the shutter closes and the film has captured that brief moment – that sliver – that snapshot of time.

We live in a world of digital cameras, streaming video on the Internet, and instant gratification. We have cameras on our phones. We buy disposable cameras at the drug store. And we are subjected to surveillance cameras while we shop, while we drive, even while we just walk down the sidewalk. Reality shows on television capture candid moments of surreal events and we watch them in our living rooms because they are delivered to us for our enjoyment.

So it's easy to forget that for the first half of the twentieth century, cameras – and photographs – were not nearly as ubiquitous. Pictures were special – they were cherished. They were placed in albums and looked at in the parlor. They were passed down through the generations. They were a slice of time that could never be re-created, and they were treated as such.

Postcards are a special type of photograph, and deserve their own special treatment. Not only were photographs special, but so were postcards. Picture-taking was an expensive proposition at the time. Cameras were big and bulky. Many times the "film" was actually a piece of chemically-treated glass.

And printing was expensive, too. Coloring was often done by hand. The best printing presses were in Germany. Shipping across the ocean was expensive.

But the postcards themselves – once they made it to the consumer – were cheap. They often sold for only a penny or so. Another penny provided for the postage. And with that small investment, you could keep in touch with the rest of the world.

Long distance communication was slow back then. Long distance telephones either didn't exist or were prohibitively expensive. A letter or postcard could take weeks to cross the country. But people couldn't resist the bargain. They loved to share their pride in their home town. And they loved to read of the pride that others had.

Postcards were a window to the world. With a postcard you could see mountains even if you lived in the plains of the Midwest. You could see wheat fields even if you lived on the seashore. You could see beaches even if you lived in the mountains. You could see the world.

Millions and millions of postcards were printed and mailed in the first part of the century. Hundreds of thousands of them were saved through the years. And they let us see what life was like then. They give us clues into what was important to people back then.

Just about every postcard contains two messages – the generic message of the picture on the card, and the very personal message of the person who sent it. That's why I believe it's important to show both the front and the back of the card. So there exists not only the slice of life in the picture – but the slice of the person's life who sent the card.

(Interestingly, postcard enthusiasts – deltiologists -- say the "front" of the card is the side with the picture and the "back" of the card is the side with the address. Philatelists – stamp collectors – consider it the other way around; the "front" is the side with the stamp. But I digress...)

As you look through my collection of postcards from Macon, Missouri, you will learn what was important to the people of Macon at the time. The churches, downtown, the Academy. And you'll learn what was important in their lives, too. Keeping in touch with family, reporting on their health, the weather, their travels.

I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you.

   —  Joe