Walk through Times Square and at almost any of the cheapie souvenir shops in the area, you'll be able to score 10 postcards for $1. A steal for sure, but a closer look at the cards reveals that they're often outdated, faded or—worst of all—boring.
Travelers from the 1900s through the 1960s would have had a heart attack over this, since back then sending a postcard meant something. It was almost required of you to mail postcards from your destinations to your family, friends and neighbors, and the quality of the card was important.
Real Photo Postcards were popular for this reason. Printing on photo paper meant the picture would be solid, with no printing dots or gradients; it was as close to actually being there (except it was black & white). We were recently presented with this photo postcard from the heyday of the first Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth. At 724 feet long and 85,000 gross tons, she was the largest ship in the world and sailing on her meant you'd be sending a slew of photo postcards.
Currently the largest cruise ship in the world is Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, measuring 1,187.05 feet long and 225,282 gross tons although Cunard's Queen Mary 2 isn't too far behind, ranking seventh on the list of largest cruise ships.
Curious to see what an Allure of the Seas postcard looks like? Here's one. Looking at it, you almost can't believe that both it and the one pictured above are in the same category as large passenger ships.
[Image: Jaunted]
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