Book excerpt: "The Golden Age of the Post Card was 1898 to around 1913. Millions of them were produced, and many think the oldest ones are the most valuable, but that is not necessarily true. There are still large numbers of them still available. Birmingham began producing them somewhere in the middle. As the automobile became available to the average person, the roads began to be so much better, and families began to travel more easily. They liked to bring home something that reminded them of their trip. They also liked to send postcards to family and friends, as they traveled farther from home. The Post Card Exchange was started in 1909 by William H. Faulkner. He first appeared in Birmingham in 1903, and apparently was a traveling salesman and roomed in a boarding house downtown. He went to work for the R.D. Burnette Cigar Company, who also had begun printing postcards locally. That is apparently about when Faulkner decided to go into the business himself."--Page 4 of cover