The following information came from this site, but the photos are mine.
REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS 1899
Prior to the 1880’s photographic negatives were produced on glass and used with a freshly made and still wet photosensitive emulsion. After the invention of the dry plate process and roll film, amateurs began taking pictures in great numbers. So many companies started up to supply this new group of consumers that they wound up depressing the entire market. To survive in this highly competitive climate George Eastman developed a complete and easy to use camera system that he named Kodak. His motto, You press the button, we do the rest sums up the marketing strategy that not only allowed him to survive but also propelled him to the top of his field. Although photographs were occasionally sent through the mail as handmade cards during the 19th century, and the first known real photo postcard made its appearance in 1899, they only began to be made in number after Eastman bought the rights to Velox photo paper that was then manufactured with a pre printed postcard back. He began to seriously promote it in 1902 and a year later he put an inexpensive folding camera onto the market that produced negatives the same size as postcards allowing for simple sharp contact printing. No other company put nearly as much money into advertising and great efforts were made to distinguish the artistic quality inherent in real photos from that of printed halftone reproductions. Between 1906 and 1910, Kodak even offered a fee based service where they would process and print real photo postcards for their customers, which greatly added to the convenience and popularity of these cards.
Real photo postcards proved cheaper to make than the traditional cabinet cards that the public was used to collecting, and they soon went out of fashion.
--A Cabinet Card. Silas S. Arnold.
With so many people now able to create their own cards with simple Brownie cameras, professional photographers began feeling the loss of revenue from their studio work and most started publishing their own cards to make ends meet. All but the most important portraiture commissions were now shot in the postcard format. Postcard backed photo paper became so common that it was used to make all types of small photos whether there was any intention of mailing them or not. While some photographers became well known for their line of photo cards, most had to become a master of many trades to survive. Local events as well as scenery were captured, printed, and often sold right out of the photographers own studio. Many times elaborate studio props would be made to attract customers for informal portraits. This practice became common at resorts and amusement parks where many photographers took up residence. Many also became salesmen offering their work to other local retail outlets or they sold photo equipment and supplies. Others took up the itinerant life, traveling around the country in search of subjects to shoot and sales to be made.
These post cards were given to me. One is the German M. E. Church located in Melvin, Illinois, and other I believe is a home in Roberts, Illinois. Curious about these photo postcards (I have several more), I found this site that was very informative.
The above information about photo postcards can be found here: http://www.metropostcard.com/history1898-1906.html
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