What is the Albany Postcard Project?

At its peak, the postcard craze of the 1900s spawned thousands of images from many American cities, hundreds of them from Albany. The Albany Postcard Project is a community based initiative launched by the Albany Archives to create a comprehensive look at how the city appeared at the turn of the 20th century using scenes from postcards.

With much of Albany’s architecture lost to time (and bulldozers), we can get a great idea of where the generations before us lived and worked through these pictures. In many instances we can duplicate the spot where the postcard was taken and compare the two locations, sometimes with startling results.

Over time we plan to collect as many of postcards as possible, and we need your help. We’d love to have scans of your postcards to help get a clearer picture of the city. Below is the list of requirements we have to get your images listed on to the Albany Postcard Project.

Image Size
For horizontal images, they need to be at least 1620 x 1020 pixels, or close to it. Those dimensions are about the size of a standard 3.5″ x 5.5″ postcard scanned in at 300 dpi. Vertical images have the same standard but at 1020 x 1620 pixels.
Publishing Information
With each postcard please include the publisher and publishing era. If you need help with these, we will be able to help you. Also, if applicable, please include a postmark date, addresses and the written note. People like reading 100-year-old notes.
Location
For the most part we have a pretty good idea of where the images were taken, but sometimes we can get stumped. If you have an idea where the postcard is located past the description, please let us know. Even a little help is help none the less. It could save us hours of head-scratching.

DISCLAIMER: By submitting images to the Albany Postcard Project, you hereby consent to having these images on the Albany Postcard Project posted for public access and the use thereof. Any person that has their image(s) posted to the Albany Postcard Project site will receive credit for submission within the Albany Postcard Project page labeled, “Contributors.”