Postcards were utilized as means of advertising more than a hundred years ago as seen in this one printed by a California shop offering both bicycles and motorcycles.
Before there was Twitter and text messaging there were postcards. Tons of them. Billions have been posted from every country in the world, the appearance of postcards stretching back more than 150 years. While there’s no special term for collecting bikes, postcard collecting and research has one… Deltiology. And it happens to be the third largest collecting hobby in the world, next to coin and stamp collecting.
Naturally when you have postcards you have the postal stamp. The first, known as the Penny Black, was printed by England in 1840 while privately produced postcards that included images first appeared in Austria in 1869 and the die was cast, the phenomena of illustrated postcard skyrocketing in popularity around the world. The first colored postcard was introduced in 1889 while images of the newly erected Eiffel Tower helped to greatly expand interest in postcards. The first cards showing real photographs began appearing in 1900.
In 1906 postcards benefited from another boost with the appearance of the Eastman Kodak foldable camera, amateur photographing booming and the resulting images transferable to postcards. In 1908 the U.S. population was listed at 88,700,000. In that same year, some 678,000,000 postcards were mailed within and from America. The era was called the Golden Age of postcards, but that all faded a bit with the advent and spread of the telephone as a means of rapid communication, but then the introduction of color postcards bumped it back up. The advent of the Internet and today’s electronic cards have had an impact, but postcards, recognized as an art form unto itself, still remain popular, especially with collectors who have nearly 150 years of postcards to choose from and a bunch of them motorcycle related including the following.
1908 – Embossed Postcard – Made in Germany – Mailed in the U.S.
This special embossed color postcard was postmarked from Cuba, Missouri at 5:00 PM Sept. 7, 1908 by a person who signed her name Jannine to a Miss Edith Barker of Millers Falls, Massachusetts. The depiction of a wicker sidecar is accurate as many similar “chairs” were built to carry family and cargo. As for the “P F” on the gas tank, no reference could be found to link it to a real motorcycle made in Germany or the U.S. and its may the initials of the artist. The card itself was apparently printed in several different languages and sold internationally.
1913 – Bike registrations in England have jumped to 180,000, nearly a 100,000 added in the previous three years.
1914 – WWI French Postcard – “Missed!”
The caption in both French and English relates to a motorcycle courier outrunning
German sentry’s rifle shots as he speeds on his mission through enemy lines. The artist’s name is listed…de Carrey apparently excerpted from another work titled “The Mirror.”
France is rich with its own motorcycle history with literally hundreds of manufacturers, most of whom have come and gone, but many leaving exceptional machines. One famous mark was the Gnome et Rhône originally known for their aircraft engines. During WWI, some 100,00 of their 9-cylinder Delta and Le Rhône 110 hp rotary designs powering the majority of all aircraft in the early years of the war. Even larger engines powered WWII aircraft. In 1920 they introduced their first motorcycle, the Gnome et Rhône 500 cc while various other models were produced up to the early 1950s,
1915 – WWI U.S. Army Motorcycle Sidecar Mounted Machinegun Trooper
1915 – U.S. motorcycle registrations had skyrocket to an estimated 180,000. But by the 1932, of over 300 total original builders, only two will have survived: Indian and Harley-Davidson.
1917 – “Motor Cycle Scouts in Action”
The colorized postcard dated Dec. 6, 1917 was sent from Greenville, South Carolina, site of a U.S. military training camp. While the driver of the sidecar rig dugs for cover, the rifleman aims his Springfield carbine at some imaginary enemy for this posed photo.
********************************
When the U.S. finally entered the war in 1917, Indian gave its entire production to the military, almost bankrupting itself, selling them at cost and leaving civilian showrooms bare. Harley took a different strategy, providing 50% of its production, the rest going to the public. The Harleys, powered by 1000cc v-twin engines produced 15hp. The factory prospered, many bikes also going to the Dutch and Russian military including gun and stretcher carrying models. Harley-Davidson supplied about one third of the 70,000 machines ordered by the U.S. military, the remaining two-thirds divided between Indian and Cleveland. Of the 26,486 Harleys bought by the U.S., some 7,000 going to England and France where they served as convoy escorts, dispatch, scouting and reconnaissance vehicles.
Henderson Four Goes Hill-Climbing – Original Postcard – Apparently a Model F circa 1913-17
1923 – Hand-tinted Postcard – Birthday Greeting – Germany
A count of late 1920s German motorcycle manufacturers indicates that over 500 different brands were in existence. The pre-WWII German economy was in a collapsed state, at once the fertile ground in which National Socialism set its dark roots, but also the setting in which motorcycle sales were experiencing a major slump. That ended in 1933, not coincidentally the year the Nazi party took control of the country, Adolf Hitler voted in as Chancellor. In that year German citizens did not have to pay taxes on motorcycles and a limit was placed on imported machines. Sales were further fueled in 1935 by the Wehrmacht who purchased large numbers for use by their motorcycle rifle troops, primarily sidecar equipped.
1930s -Sino-Japanese War – Commercial Postcard – Machinegun Motorcycle
During the Second Sino-Japanese War Imperial Marines fire at Chinese defenders from a sandbagged fortification. The machinegun is mounted into what could be a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the motorcycles having been imported to Japan in the early 1900s.
1930s – Belgium – “Excess Baggage!”
Belgium has produced some notable motorcycles, including the excellent FN and the Sarolea. FN (Fabrique Nationale de Herstal) started production 1899, but guns not bikes, the latter first seen in 1901 and then continuing in production until 1967. In fact it built the world’s first four-cylinder motorcycle and also incorporating shaft drive in all models from 1903 to 1923.
Sarolea, est. 1850, also began by making armaments, then branched out into bicycles and eventually their own engine designs. In the 1920s their bikes had success in long distance runs, reliability trials and hill climbs. By 1929 in a then state of the art facility, production reached 75 machines daily, both singles and V-twins that were supplied to various bike builders, including those in England.
1940 – Finland – Love at First Bike
A rider appears well-attired for motorcycling complete with goggles, gloves and helmet although his passenger sits in a less secure side-saddle position minus any protective gear. The colorized postcard was dated June 7, 1940 and sent from the city of Turku, the oldest settlement in Finland, and located in southwest coast of country at the mouth of the Aura River. In 1996 Turku was declared the official Christmas City of Finland, then designated the European Capital of Culture for 2011.
Only a couple motorcycle references to Finnish motorcycles could be found and one happened to be made in none other than Turku, the company being Tunturi, its history beginning in 1922 and leading to successful bicycle production. In the 1950s the Tunturi led the Finnish domestic market leader in mopeds. They are best known in foreign markets for their range of physical fitness equipment development including stationary bicycles now sold in 40 countries.
*******************
1941 – U.S. – Harley-Davidson and Thompson .45 Machinegun
As early as 1937 the U.S. military visited the Harley-Davidson factory intent on finding a suitable motorcycle for the war they saw as inevitable. Toward that end the Milwaukee company sent the head of its factory service school on a cross country tour of every Army camp east of the Mississippi, logging 200,000 miles on his Harley EL “Knucklehead.”
By 1939, the Army had compared various Harleys and Indians as well as a BMW clone produced by the Delco Corporation. It chose Harley-Davidson, but required that it could reach 65 mph, be able to ford streams 16 inches deep and not overheat at slow speeds slogging through muddy fields.
*********************
1942 – Third Reich Germany – Propaganda Postcard
A commercial postcard heralds the national “Armed Forces Day” as celebrated in Defense District 17 located in Vienna and which covered the area of Northern Austria and southern Czechoslovakia. The main image is of a Kradschutze or motorcycle trooper aboard what appears to be a Zundapp sidecar combo, it and the BMW the two main workhorses of the German army during the war. The cartoonlike illustration including images of women and children was designed to promote the “family” atmosphere of the event, part of the program to encourage civilian support and identification with the military. (The artist has incorporated a license plate registration for Anhalt, an area of middle Germany located between the Harz Mountains and the River Elbe.)
************************************************************
Propaganda Postcard – WWII Germany
A German soldier takes a BMW R11 wheeling up a hill. The image appeared on a commercial postcard sold to the public by the State propaganda ministry. The 740cc sidevalve R11 was introduced in 1929, the first to use a pressed-steel frame, and early stalwart of the German military motorcycle ranks.
1953 – England – Triumph Thunderbird 650cc – “The Best Motorcycle in the World” An illustration from the Triumph factory’s 1953 catalog appears on a commercial postcard.
1961 – England – Norton Manxman – Mayfair Cards of London – Courtesy of Norton Motors, Ltd.
The caption on the reverse of the card reads: “Every feature of the 1961 Norton was a direct development of Grand Prix racing. It was the know-how gained from winning races all over the world which gives a Norton bike race-bred performance which is second to none. By 1961 the Norton had won 32 T.T. races.”
The Manxman derived its name from the famous Isle of Mann race course, the island also home to the famous tail-less Manx cat. Norton also built the famous Manx single cylinder racers that earned the company so many victories. On November 7, 1960 the first new 650cc Norton Manxman with the vaunted Featherbed frame was launched for the American market only. It was later followed by the larger displacement 750cc Norton Atlas in April 1962 because of the American market demand for more power. However the Atlas proved too expensive to build, profits meager and the cause of growing financial problems for the company. Fortunately in 1968 the new Commando appeared to save the day, at
least temporarily.
1970s – U.S. – “The Coke Machine”
