Old envelopes make for great digital vintage ephemera, especially if they’ve been used; there are stamps to cut out, fun borders, all sorts of fancy writing—lots of creative opportunities! I especially love old British air mail envelopes. Anyway, check out this week’s batch of free vintage images.
Although these two are going to the same person, their details differ enough to justify posting both. These are the envelopes that went with the letters from Scotland that I wrote about a while back—remember Olive and her dislike of The Beatles? They were mailed in 1965 via air mail, with a slight disagreement on the postage amounts.
What I love most about air mail envelopes is the red and blue (or black, occasionally) border. I tend to associate it with travel. So many people use them for vacation-related printables, and it’s easy to see why—air mail is bold!
In 1993, Father Arthur Smith mailed a letter from Antofagasta, Chile, to a Mrs. Helen Smith in Toronto. His sister, perhaps? We have a nice selection of stamps here, and what’s really cool is the address written on the typewriter. I grew up with electric typewriters, but was young enough that I don’t remember using them on a regular basis. I did use a dot matrix printer. Remember those?
The back of the air mail envelope.
Here’s the back of a plain envelope that y’all can use, too. A little wear, some scuffing, more interest.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s selection. See you next time with some more free vintage images for your collections.
[…] among a lot of paper, tucked into those funky little Royal Mail envelopes, was this set of fascinating vintage ephemera in the form of letters from the 1960s. A teenager […]