It’s summer, and you know what that means: prime vacation time.

Our ways of traveling have changed in the last century or so, along with our means of communicating with our loved ones back home, but one thing has never changed much: we love to send postcards to show people just what they’re missing!

Here are some from trips within the U.S.:

(New Orleans, Louisiana, 1945)

(Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, 1945)

(Ranier National Park, Washington, 1940s)

(San Francisco, California, 1949)

Here are some from folks abroad in Europe:

(London, U.K., 1969 — notice the big sign for Tom Jones!)

(Nice, France, 1914; sent from Paris)

(Lake Lugano, Switzerland/Italy border, 1915)

(Rome, Italy, 1903)

(Salzburg, Austria, 1969)

Abroad in the middle east and the far east:

(Port Said, Egypt, 1902; sent from Cairo)

(Tokyo, Japan, 1903)

(Peking, China, 1936)

Browse the collections below to discover a variety of postcards:

• Valentine J. Oldshue Papers (circa WWI)
• Tuscaloosa Service Men’s Center Scrapbook (circa WWII)

Or take a look at these small collections of postcards:

• Chicago, 1945, from the J. C. Faulkner Papers
• Camp Jackson, South Carolina, 1918, from the Joseph Wilbourne Young Letters