You've got mail: hospital postcards as a reflection of health care in the early twentieth century.
OBJECTIVE
The author shows that not only can the illustrations on the front of postcards reveal a considerable amount of information about hospitals in the early twentieth century, but that the messages, addresses, captions, postmarks, and stamps on the back of postcards also offer a valuable glimpse into the lives of ordinary citizens and their interactions with the health care system.


METHODS
In addition to a literature review on postcards and their history and use, particularly in the depiction of health care, the author reviews the postcards in her own collection, which includes a variety of hospital postcards from this time period.


CONCLUSIONS
Early hospital postcards provide a framework for examining individual elements of postcards and show how postcards can be used as key sources in historical research on health care in the early 1900s.
Hook
Sara Anne
SA
Indiana University School of Informatics, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis 46202, USA.
D015709:Correspondence as Topic / Q000266:history; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006749:Hospital Design and Construction / Q000266:history*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D010781:Photography / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States