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Individuals sensitive to their visual elegance began to collect postcards. By the 1890s, postcard collecting had become a popular pastime christened cartophilia. In Europe groups coalesced to found clubs and societies interested in collecting postcards. These offered social opportunities for individuals of the growing middle class. Members would trade cards with collectors in other countries. Postcard exhibitions were organized in several European cities, including Berlin, Venice, and Paris. In 1899, one exhibit in Berlin incorporated more than one million postcards; in the same year, a Cartophilic Congress was organized in Prague. 11