In those days, postcards weren’t just for sharing vacation greetings. Banks across the country often sent them as transaction confirmations, and Lake City Bank was no different. In today’s electronic environment, it may be difficult to understand why a receipt wasn’t issued immediately. Until the mid-twentieth century, however, it took more than the push of a button to move money from one bank to another.

When Lake City Bank opened, it took more than a simple ledger entry to deposit a check drawn on a different bank. The person depositing the check took it to their bank and received a receipt acknowledging the transaction, but the money didn’t go into their account immediately. The depositor’s bank had to physically present the check to the bank it was drawn on or to a clearing house bank to collect the money. This process took days or weeks, depending on the location of each bank. Without telephones, the only way to notify a customer that a deposit had cleared was by mail – hence the postcards.