National Postcard Week

The current National Postcard Week (NPCW) began in 1984 as a way for sellers and collectors to promote the hobby of postcard collecting. It is held the first week of May each year. This year the dates are May 1-7, 2011.
To celebrate the week, postcard collectors either design and make their own postcards or purchase them to mail to friends and family. Postcards issued for NPCW must always have the dates of the current year's week and the words "National Postcard Week" somewhere on the card.
The historical beginnings of NPCW start in 1911, when a small number of postcards were printed for Postcard Day, May 1, in Florida. These cards used slogans such as “Come to Tampa,” which was published by the Tampa Bay Land Company. Another card read “The First of May is Postcard Day,” published by the Courier-Informant, a booster for Barlow, Florida.
In 1913, a black and white viewcard of San Diego, California bore this message on the reverse: “1913 Preparations for the International Exposition of Progress and Opportunity to be held in San Diego, California, through the entire year of 1915 have been underway for two years and work on the buildings and grounds is now more than fifty percent complete…. The State Societies of San Diego send you this card of their Postcard Day and hundreds of thousands of similar cards go to all parts of the world.”
In 1914, Hillsboro, Texas celebrated a Post Card Dayon February 14. It is said that 20,000 post cards advertising Hillsboro were “sent out to all quarters of the Globe.” Hutchinson, Kansas also celebrated a post card day in 1914.
Our current National Postcard Week began in 1984 with the idea that the International Federation of Postcard Dealers and different clubs would make a postcard to celebrate the postcard and promote their hobby. Some of the more recent founders of National Postcard Week include DeeDee Parker of the Western Reserve Postcard Society, Richard Novick of the International Federation of Postcard Dealers, John McClintock, and Roy Cox. In 1985, the former Postcard Collector magazine sponsored an NPCW postcard design contest. The winning designers won $50 and 500 postcards.
National Postcard Week even has an international flair. In 1992, NPCW was celebrated in Barnaul, Siberia, Russia during the week of January 7 - 14.
For more information, please visit http://npcw.multiply.com for more details and a library of photos of past NPCW cards.
Submitted by Demaris Elrod Swint

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