How'd They Do This? 1907 Postal Card W/ Pix

Found this postal card today from 1907 to a GreatAunt...
What I'm curious about is how they put the photo on the back.
Were they sold from photographer as postal card?
The image is of two cousins. Just can't imagine that the postal card was chemically treated for photograph, processed and the stamp looks this well after all time.

That's called a RPPC - Real Photo Post Card. They were very popular for some decades. You see them on ebay all the time. And yes, I think local photographers made them up for you.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_photo_postcard

In 1903 Kodak introduced the No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak. The camera, designed for postcard-size film, allowed the general public to take photographs and have them printed on postcard backs. They are usually the same size as standard vintage postcards (3-1/2" x 5-1/2"). Also known by the acronym "RPPC".
Kodak's 3A camera pioneered in its use of postcard-size film but was not the only one to make Real Photo postcards. Many other cameras were used, some of which used old-fashioned glass plates that required cropping the image to fit the postcard format.

According to this site, Kodak "created a service called "Real Photo postcards," enabling people to make a postcard from any picture they took" in 1907.
While Kodak was certainly the major promoter of photo postcard production, they didn't seem to originate the term "Real Photo," and used it less frequently than photographers and others in the marketplace from 1903 to ca. 1930. But it has become the popular term nowadays to distinguish photographic postcards from commercially printed, mass-produced postcards of the same era.

Old House Journal states "Beginning in 1902 Kodak offered a preprinted card back that allowed postcards to be made directly from negatives." [1] Regardless of when the year, this "technology" allowed photographers to travel from town to town and document life in the places they visited. Old House Journal continues: "Local entrepreneurs hired them to record area events and the homes of prominent citizens. These postcards documented important buildings and sites, as well as parades, fires, and floods. Realtors used them to sell new housing by writing descriptions and prices on the back. Real Photo postcards became expressions of pride in home and community, and were also sold as souvenirs in local drug stores and stationery shops." [1]

Real Photo postcards may or may not have a white border, or a divided back, or other features of postcards, depending on the paper the photographer used. Many current Real Photo postcards are reproductions of earlier historic photos. Want to know if it is authentic or a reproduction: look at it under a magnifying glass. If it is authentic "it will show smooth transitions from one tone to another." [2] According to the 2Buds, the way to tell is, while looking under the magnifying glass notice that "Postcards that are NOT Real Photos are made up of many small dots. If you look at a Real Photo postcard, the image is solid (no dots)." [3]

First time I really read upon the subject myself, but I knew Kodak was involved. I see these postcards all the time at flea markets. The British were still making them at least to the 1960's. There's also composite RPPC where they spliced together a few photos into one card.
Will

After my grandmother past-away my mother and my aunts went through her stuff. I was about 10 years old at time. And I remember them throwing these type of postcards away. They were of old family members and friends of my grandma's. If I only were involved with stamp collecting at that time I would have a nice collection of these type of postcards. Oh well, that life!

Thanks for that info Battlestamps,
that intrigued me for years.
I have some very faded GB examples.

Battlestamps - thanks!

I see that moniker used a lot - "Real Photo Postcards" and I have purchased a few.

However, they seem to be just stock photos. I'm guessing I was taken for a long walk off a short dock.....

Like from wikipedia, the real photos are not made up of little dots so if they aren't you were not taken. Some of the really old RPPC are not glossy either, but may have a metallic-like sheen when held at an angle in the light, but again look at the picture under magnification to be sure. Some were produced commercially for the masses. You can make as many as you wanted if you had the negative.

Here's a personal one, probably one of a kind:


..and then there are commerically produced ones:


..and even before Photoshop they figured out tricks to make composite real photo postcards:

A 1916 from the front.
with a tacky, sickly sweet comment on the "fireworks"

Hey, once more, thanks for all the good info...
Mine is real; but now I need to really look at some of the others which are of the same age.
I was really lucky ... nobody threw anything away. :)

The challenge is..to maintain a similar policy

Not sure if these qualify,
One of our Queen (not my postcard) and she is Radiant!
The best picture I have seen of her Majesty.




The oldest house in Oxford (12th century) PPC 1908

What the... Rod, that is a great shot of HRH, never seen her like that!

Yes, she is beautiful, going by the swing of the
pearl earring the picture was taken unrehearsed.
My mother adores the Queen, it is quite amazing
reflecting on the adulation given from one of the Queen's subjects.

I don't spot much of that sort of freely given respect around much anymore.