In the late 19^th century and for much of the 20^th century, long before the invention of Facebook, postcards served much the same purpose that social media serve today. Postcards were a convenient way for friends or family to tell each other what they were doing, to show where they had been, and to communicate brief messages. They were the medium to use to keep each other up to date, especially if one didn’t have the time to write a letter, and postal rates have always been less for a postcard than for a letter.

We are presenting the actual postcards through a database of records with information fields and a link to the actual postcard. The postcards presented here on the Consortium website are mostly of scenes in Rhinebeck. A few are of scenes in neighboring Red Hook. We are also including the back sides of the postcards. The database is structured as a finding aid. The MEDIA LINK takes you to the actual postcard images.