I've always loved buying postcards when i've been away and either keeping them for souvenirs or sending them to family at home but i never realised until recently just how fascinating they are.
Each one is a small snapshot of history especially if it has been written and posted to someone. The message on the back can be a funny one, sad one, mysterious one or just a few words of thanks, they all meant a lot to both the sender and recipient. My favourite era of postcards to collect is 1900 to 1920's which apparently was known as the golden age. It was a time when postcards were really popular and people would use them a bit like sending texts today. They would be sent to say 'thank you for a lovely day' , 'arrived home safely' or 'isabella had a baby boy'. People would send them just for others to add to their collection as collecting postcards was a big deal at the time.
Being a family history buff I cant resist being nosy, reading those messages and doing some research on the people mentioned. What was the senders relationship to the recipient? Boyfriend and girlfriend perhaps, mother and daughter? I cant resist the thrill of the chase to find out more about them, 1 postcard at a time, which i will do in my next post.
So here are the first three postcards i bought.
These are all of views which are fairly local, so they have a double interest for me.
Do you have a postcard collection, if so how many and what made you begin?
