In the early 1930s, cartoon-style saucy postcards became widespread and at the peak of their popularity the sale of saucy postcards reached a massive 16m a year. This trend was popular in the US, but even more so in Britain. It’s a fascinating social documentation on public tolerance for this risqué subject matter – much of it would be wildly inappropriate today.
Looking through postcards from the 1930s-1950s, you’ll find not as many photographs of tourist locations as you will bawdy cartoons.
“I’d like to sit down and write you a line, but the scenery here is much too fine.”įor some reason, in the early decades of the 20th century it was a “thing” to send sleazy cartoon postcards while on vacation.
