By Clarissa Ferraris and Tony Chaves
It was 1976 and our nation was celebrating its Bicentennial. Carter was elected President, Apple Computer was founded, and NASA’s Viking missions landed on Mars. Yet another event happened that year that did not make headlines! Fifty people from Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia met at the Greenbelt Junior High School to create a new postcard club: the Capitol-Beltway Postcard Club! The chosen logo depicted all three regions. The original officers were President Charles Collins, Vice-President Alvin Goldstein. Secretary Donia Collins, and Treasurer Neal Boyle.
It was decided that the meetings would be held on the second Thursday of the month and the location would rotate around the area. Well, it is now 50 years later, and the members are still meeting on the second Thursday of the month! It was not the original intent, but the location has pretty much remained the Greenbelt Middle School.
The 1970s were special years for postcard collecting. In 1975 Neudin published his first catalog in France and in Europe the era of “Modern Postcard” or renewal of collecting began. The previous era from 1921 to 1974 was called in Europe “Semi-Modern” or hibernation! The postcard history in the USA was different. There was the White Border Era (1915 – 1930) followed by the Linen Era (1930-1945) and since about 1946 the Chrome Era.
There was no new era in the 1970s in America, although many clubs were started in that period and later. Why? Some kind of revival of deltiology was taking place. Many catalogues and checklists were published in the 1980s in the USA. The word “deltiology” was coined about 1945 by Professor Randall Rhoades, stemming from a contest in the Postcard Collector Magazine, but it did not appear in a dictionary until 1960!
The Capitol-Beltway Postcard Club published newsletters intermittently in the 1970s and 1980s. As new officers took over in 1988, a monthly newsletter was revived. Around 1991 the club switched to announcing meetings by postcard. In the 2000s paper announcements and newsletters turned to email.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, in-person meetings were reduced to four annually and Zoom meetings (virtual) were instituted. As a result, interested collectors from outside the area could attend the virtual meetings and club membership increased. Now at least 20% of the members live outside the DMV.
In 2020, a Facebook page was created, followed in 2022 with a website. In 2021, a call for ideas for a new postcard was launched that resulted in the first new postcard of the club in years.
Ellen Schwab, Bruce Tapper, and Tony Chaves and edited by Clarissa Ferraris.
Since then, the club has published several postcards per year – for Postcrossing Meetups at BALPEX and NAPEX and to celebrate the DMZC (Date Meets Zip Code).
designed by Bruce Jenkins, a Cobb Island resident.
All the postcards can be seen on the club’s website. The club is now a fixture at NAPEX and BALPEX with special postcards designed for the Postcrossing Meetup. In 2026 the club will make its first appearance at the SPRINGPEX show.
In the years that many postcard clubs disappeared, the CBPCC has endured and is growing! Membership has increased from 38 members in 2023 to over 90 members in 2026.
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INTERESTING FACTS
President Tony Chaves and Secretary/Treasurer Harold Silver each held their office for 37 years, until they retired in 2025 and 2024 respectively. That means the club has had only four presidents in 50 years!
To celebrate the 50th anniversary, a special postcard designed by Stacy Adam
was mailed on the anniversary of the formation, January 15, 2026, to all members.