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Postcards from the Modern City

By Joseph Heathcott

"The rise of the Modern city is inseparable from its representation in visual culture, and the most common format for the global circulation of urban images was the postcard. With the development of technologies for low-cost print production, standardized sizing, and routine modes of delivery, the postcard rapidly became one of the great communication devices of the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. Sojourners sent them by the billions to friends and relatives around the world. Collectors displayed them in albums and cabinets as a way to convey an aura of travel and adventure. They were the Instagram and Twitter/X feeds of their time--a new, exciting, and seemingly ubiquitous form of communication.
Postcards carried visual information about cities across great distances, and linked the public depictions on their faces with the private details of everyday life on the verso sides. For tourists, scenes of great public buildings and landscapes provided evidence of their time spent in a city. For locals and newly arrived transplants, the more quotidian scenes of cafés, working class districts, and crowded streets gave their friends and relatives back home a view of their new surroundings, and marked their place in the metropolis. For everyone who sent, received, and collected them, postcards offered a democratic means by which to fathom the urban landscape--to miniaturize, contain, and possess the ever-changing city."

Grid layout of colorful vintage postage stamps from Burma and Myanmar, each with distinct imagery and design. The stamps include portraits, birds, Olympic rings, historical monuments, and traditional scripts in Burmese. Many stamps are marked with postmarks, suggesting use and circulation.
Tinted vintage postcard depicting Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The wide avenue is flanked by ornate multi-story buildings with balconies and trees. People in early 20th-century attire walk or stand on the sidewalk and street. Handwritten text in Spanish is visible across the image.
Hand-tinted vintage postcard showing a wooded park scene in Bois de Vincennes, France. The setting includes a rustic bridge with people leaning on the railing and a group of children and adults playing or walking below. A seated woman in a pink blouse observes from the foreground.
Early 20th-century postcard of a Paris Métro station (Bastille), titled “Une Gare du Métropolitain.” The green Art Nouveau entrance is surrounded by pedestrians in formal Edwardian attire. French handwriting overlays the sky area and the bottom edge of the card.
Exhibition setup titled “Postcards from the Modern City.” A large display case on the left contains descriptive panels and small architectural models. On the adjacent wall, dozens of vintage postcards are mounted in horizontal rows under a clear plastic cover. The space is clean and well-lit, with orange benches for viewing.