Deltiology is the study and collection of postcards. The word comes from the Greek word “deltion” meaning small illustrated tablet, or card.
Several postcards are found in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks including in Jacques Renault’s apartment and James Hurley sends Donna Hayward one from San Francisco postcard. The Twin Peaks Definitive Gold Box DVD Set from 2007 contained the “Greetings from Twin Peaks” postcard set. Lately, I’ve been acquiring postcards from the Real Twin Peaks of Washington state and other ephemera that is related to the wonderful and strange show.
This page highlights my current collection. Click on the images to learn more about the photographers and publishers of these beloved collectibles.
WHO COINED THE TERM DELTIOLOGY?
Dr. Rendell Rhoades of Ashland, Ohio (1914-1976) first coined the term “deltiology” with his colleagues at The Ohio State University (OSU) around 1945. Rhoades earned a B.A. and B.S. in education from Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from OSU.
He began his career as a fisheries technician for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, and in 1945 he joined the faculty of Wilmington College as a professor of Earth Sciences. He later served as Curator of Collections at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and as a professor in the Department of Zoology at OSU. In 1962 he joined Ashland College as a professor of biology, and remained until his retirement, eventually becoming chairman of the department.
According to a headline in Post Card Collectors Magazine from January 1945 (Vol. 3, No. 1), research helped determine the official name for postcard collectors.
“Thru the splendid efforts of careful research by Rendell Rhoades, (of then Blanchester, Ohio) the authentic and official name of the Postcard Collectors has been discovered. Mr Rhoades is a Research Associate for Ohio State University, and upon being challenged to find a name for the Postcard Collectors thru several contests held by this magazine as well as by William Morris of New York City, he contacted Dr K.M. Abbott and Mrs Ethel Miller, two well-known authorities on word formation. They identified a word from the Greek language: “deltion” meaning small illustrated tablet, or card.”
Rhoades and his wife had been collecting postcards long before the hobby was named. In a letter to the editor of the News Journal on December 30, 1941, he mentions they had 14,500 postcards (!!) in their collection from “every state in the United States, every province in Canada and 68 other countries of the globe.”
The earliest known picture postcard was a hand-painted design on card created by the writer Theodore Hook. Hook posted the card to himself in 1840 from Fulham (part of London). To mail the card, he used a Penny Black Stamp which the world’s first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system.
The first postcard was published in 1869, and by 1875, 231.5 million open letters were sent in the member countries of the Universal Postal Union. This specialized agency of the United Nations coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system.
You can download high-resolution images of these postcards on my Flickr account.
POSTCARD COLLECTION