Advertising postcards in the collections of the National Museum of the History of Moldova (late 19th c. - the 1st half of the 20th c

The subject of the paper is advertising postcards, discovered during the research of the museum collection of postcards. Performed in the style of their time, they reflect changes in both production and society. Unlike postage stamps and envelopes, the postcard is more convenient as a carrier of information, including advertising. The first classic promotional postcards appeared in Europe in the late 1870s, initially they presented advertising of hotels and restaurants. In Russia, including in Bessarabia, annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812, the first postcards with advertising content appeared in 1896. They can be divided into three categories: postcards with images similar to images in newspapers, postcards “as in a magazine” (a picture accompanied by text) and postcards with the views of certain buildings, accompanied by an explanatory text. The first two categories were usually distributed by the owners of the advertised objects, and the third was sold by souvenir dealers. According to their purpose, illustrated postcards serve for iconographic popularization. On some postcards the image is not associated with the text of the ad, located, as a rule, on the reverse side. This includes postcards, which indicate the author of the image and the publisher, advertised via postcards. On other postcards the image itself serves as an advertisement and is not always accompanied by text. This includes postcards depicting places of entertainment, recreation areas, trading houses, outstanding buildings, etc. A special place is occupied by tourist advertising cards, the most popular and, as a rule, the most numerous in museum and private collections.