The world's first postal cards appeared in the US in 1861, in Austria in 1869, and in Britain a year later. The picture postcard began to appear a few years later, and during the Paris Exhibition of 1889 received a big boost in popularity as a means of sending messages. This event triggered off a craze for postcard collecting and caught the public's imagination, so much so in fact that in their heyday, between 1890–1920, they even took the place of traditional family photo albums. Virtually every country in the world produced cards in ever increasing numbers. In 1902, Britain was the first country to divide the back thus allowing the address and message on the back and a complete picture on the other side.The years before the First World War have been called 'The Golden Age' of picture postcards as everybody used them for messages before the telephone was widely in use. Cards of all descriptions and subjects were produced and personal collections were popular, many of these cards being produced in Germany. Of course, with the outbreak of hostilities this supply ended, and after the First World War the hobby never recovered. The postcard was initially limited to a short text, but publishers soon understood that "a picture is worth a thousand words," and a portion of writing space was dedicated to a visual medium: a photograph, painting or illustration. Picture postcards became a popular item, especially for tourists. Printers in the nineteenth century used several methods for printing black-and-white pictures, but color printing was a new and unfamiliar technology, mastered only by a few German and Swiss printers. The superior color printing method at that time was Photochrom and the less advanced method was coarse-screen offset. By the end of the nineteenth century, black-and-white photography was a well-established professional skill. Color photography became practical only in the second decade of the twentieth century. Color printing of sites and scenes relied on black-and-white photo negatives that were subsequently hand "colored" during the plate-making process. Little wonder that publishers preferred to use paintings as the master for printing color postcards. During this golden period, postcards featured every conceivable subject; these were, after all exciting times. Notable examples included hand-painted picturesque views of famous sites and buildings, while fantastic photographic images captured major political and sporting events, as well as recording and celebrating important moments such as early aviation. From another perspective, these cards are historically significant because they provide an insight into the social history of the world by visually depicting and charting the effects of defining moments, which include the First World War and the rise of industrialism.