
These days, if you send a postcard home from your travels (and not just an email), it's likely to feature an image of a famous landmark like the Eiffel Tower, the Trevi Fountain, the Empire State Building, or perhaps - depending on your pen pal - a picture of a stunning woman posing provocatively on a beach while wearing a barely-there bikini.

But while these stereotypical 'wish you were her!' style postcards are today deemed to be somewhat tacky, a century ago, postcards featuring photos of women were much more commonplace - specifically, photos of pretty women who represented the beauty ideals and fashion trends of the day in any particular place in the world.

And unlike email, postcards are likely to endure the test of time — which is how Flickr user PostMan managed to round up so many of them from the 1900s and 1910s, spotlighting beautiful women from the US, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and the Philippines.

A cool collection: Flickr user PostMan collected postcards that were distributed in the 1900s and 1910s, including these two images of an unknown lady in 1909 (left) and a Japanese woman taken around 1920 (right), to show how beauty standards have changed

Flashback: English actress Gertrude 'Gertie' Millar, later the Countess of Dudley, is pictured around 1919 in a long, pristine dress and big hat (left) while a Filipino woman is captured circa 1909 in a long blouse and tousled hair (right)

All about the bling: This Nepaly lady, pictured circa 1905, set herself apart from women from other countries with her bold, layered jewelry and septum ring

Eastern beauty: The collector labeled these women as a geisha in 1909 (left) and a Japanese lady in 1913 (right)

Nearly all in black-and-white — with a few colored-in — the images feature women who were considered beautiful all over the globe at the turn of the century.

On one postcard from about 1909, an unknown woman poses in an elegant gown and is seemingly weighed down by the oversized, fashionable hat on her head, which is kept in place with a ribbon.

In another image from 1913, a woman stands outside in a very low cut red dress, a fan in her hand and a bonnet on her head.

Stage and film actress Maude Fealy poses in a modest, long-sleeve, high neck dress with a parasol in her hand, while English actress and singer Gertie Millar wears an equally covered-up dress with a hat and pearls.

But while those photos represent Western beauty and styles of dress 100 years ago, other images in the collection look at beauty elsewhere in the world.

Several photos of Japanese geishas demonstrate how women there preferred less form-fitting outfits, and their hair was often worn in more carefully brushed-back, helmet like styles.

How times have changed: In recent years, postcard pictures have become much more raunchy and overtly sexual, with women often wearing nothing more than a barely-there bikini while posing provocatively

Vintage: Miss Maude Fealy (pictured in 1908), an American actress, typified the look and style of women in the US at that time with her curled hair and ladylike parasol

Worldwide style: A Cambodian woman pictured circa 1906 poses barefoot with an ill-fitting skirt and strapless top

Traditional: A postcard from the Elz Valley in Germany circa 1920 shows girls in traditional dress

Olé! Carolina 'La Bella' Otéro, a Spanish-born dancer and actress, is pictured around 1907 (left), while the image on the right depicts a woman wearing a fairly low-cut dress, which would have been deemed rather risque at the time it was taken circa 1913

Tough is beautiful! This Vietnamese woman, in a postcard from around 1908, is pictured with a sword

The collection also includes a photo of a Bedoin woman in 1919 revealing much more skin than women in the other photos, as well as a Luzon woman from the Philippines sitting with her very long hair arranged around her shoulders.

Perhaps most dramatically different from the pictures of the western women is one of a Nepali woman from about 1905. She sits, unsmiling, with a fancy headdress, extravagant beaded jewelry around her next, and a septum ring in her nose.

One of the most surprising things, though, is the fact that what was considered a traditional beauty shot in one part of the world was even more risqué than erotica in another part.

A picture of a girl from Manila in the Philippines around 1907 shows her topless, her breasts in full view just colorful jewelry draped around her neck and arms.

However, pictures labeled as erotica from the west simply feature women hiking up their skirts, flaunting only their thighs peeking out from under garters or a bit of decolletage under a slipping dress.

Middle East: The collector noted that this image of a Beduin with a long head scarf was taken circa 1919

Varying attitudes: This 1907 postcard, which features two girls from Manila, demonstrates the different attitudes about nudity held around the world

A hint of skin: Whereas this photo — taken somewhere in the west around 1920 — was labeled as erotica

Too sexy: Several photos of women showing off just their legs, like this 1919 one, were labeled as erotica

Ooh la la! The top of the thigh, peeking out from above stockings, was considered very risqué

Suggestive: This vintage erotica postcard from 1919 just falls short of revealing too much

Bodies: The photos, like this one from 1913, show how much beauty standards and body ideals have changed, spotlighting models that are a big bigger than those used today