Click on image for larger image of the
New Alcan Highway, a photo postcard.
"View along the New Alcan Highway through Canada's Wilderness
built by a Welcome Army of U.S. Soldiers"
To learn more about the Alcan Highway (now Alaska Highway), here are a couple of links:
As my postcard page has developed and grown, I've found it necessary to break it up into smaller sections; therefore, I now link from this page to each section by clicking on the images below. I hope you will enjoy your visit.
Generally Speaking...
Postcard collecting has become much more than a pastime for me.
Since I began my collection a few years ago, I've learned a great deal about the past, and created a window through which I could glimpse life as my ancestors saw it.
Often insight is gained from the comments written on older postcards. Collecting postcards is a wonderful way to learn of our past in a far more personal manner than out of books.
It did not take long, however, before I noticed that I had
stacks of albums filling up with cards! I soon developed,
as so many have before me, a passion for almost every kind of card
I could find or trade for. Joining a postcard trading list opened a whole new world where I could learn much more about what will
someday become history, by sending and receiving postcards, usually in
my own line of interest. A good trading site will be found at Postcard Pages.
There are many sites devoted to types of cards, identification of
cards, and the various technical aspects of cards. Confused about the descriptions of backs of cards? Here are two examples:
And here are a couple of links to help you further:
What I plan to do is devote my site to what is on the face of the cards. This is the main
focus of my own collection, although on rare occasions I opt for a
specific publisher or cards with "undivided backs", for the most part it's the content that matters to me. I
enjoy cards most that have been used in their own time. That is why many of my cards show signs of wear.
My main interest eventually took a turn toward such varied topics as
Transportation; People doing traditional work/art, performing traditional dances in traditional clothing; Local legends; Animals in nature, in addition to adding to my genealogical collection and a collection of the city where I was born and raised, Vancouver B.C. Since Vancouver became a city in 1886, it is recent enough for almost all of it's history to be recorded in postcards.
My goal is to upload some of these postcards and others from my family's collections, usually running three themes at the same time, and rotate one theme at a time every three months or so.
Some of the themes I am hoping to do in the future are cards depicting
the early days of Vancouver, B.C., lighthouses, more transportation
cards... there will be many more. Due to the popularity of the
CPR Empresses and Princesses (seen on this page through most of 1999),
I will probably recycle that section with some new cards at a later
date.
My current feature is Early Transportation: Animals at Work
Transportation is not just a method to travel, but also affects how goods and services are delivered as well, as in the ploughing of a field to produce a crop, or as in the case of the card below, the delivery (by birds) of the ocean produce (fish) to the sellers of the raw product (the women in the boat). Travel through the postcard below (by clicking on the image) to get to the "working animals" page.
For a very good example of how comprehensive a single-theme collection can be, check out this uniquely "dedicated" postcard page, Michele's Frog Postcards, a wonderful collection of postcards all featuring frogs. This page is part of a website devoted to frogs which features a lot of information and photos on some of the other pages.
Please
links updated March 5, 2005
Current Themes
Note the curved marks on the upper corners of the card on the right. These are pressure marks caused from the card being stored in an album for an extended period.
Example of undivided back
Example of early divided back
Glossary of terms used with postcards.
"Papoose" Cradle Boards: Variations Between Nations. "This collection has been a pleasure to assemble.... You will see from these postcards that each nation has slightly different style to its cradle boards. Also, some have been decorated (there is beadwork done on the headboard of one), some infants are wrapped in bands, some with skins, some with blankets...."
Shown below, and as an entrance into the "Papoose" Cradleboard page (just click on the image), is a card I included of one child not on a cradle board simply because she was so cute in her "teddy bear"-type snowsuit! This card is an official card of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition held in Seattle, Wash. in 1909.
"Raltugia" Takes Life Easy
in her Teddy Bear Costume,
Eskimo Village...
A Few Examples of the Use of Postcards in Genealogy
This Postcard Ring site is owned by
Betty
Want to join the Postcard ring?
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