Does anyone know of a postcard museum, where anyone can send a postcard? They put it on display as a ‘recent acquisition’, for a week/ month, catalog them, and then do thematic displays.
I know of one postal museum in the U.S., in Washington D.C., but I do not know if they display “recent acquisitions” as you describe. Pretty sure they do not. Here’s a link:
Smithsonian National Postal Museum
Note that this is a postal museum writ large, not just limited to postcards.
This sounds more like a project to me that schools or public instituttions might do.
For example, there was this initiative from Tallinn Airport where you could send them a card and they would show them in a huge display case:
because it is ordinary
In response to your question, two things. Many Many years ago, a fellow I traded postcards with, upon retirement donated huge chunks of his collection (100,000+ postcards ) to his alma mater - The University of Cincinnati.
There also is a major museum here in the US: “The Institute of American Deltiology.” Deltiology is the study of postcards. They probably would not accept postcards on the fly though.
An interesting article. There is a picture of the Museum in the article - I have a picture postcard showing same.
@linos203 Granted, many postcards you see today are bland and uninspiring. But you go back 50, 60, 70 years ago, you see vintage postcards depicting subjects that have largely disappeared. I put together a small collection (70 vintage postcards) of various cruise ships and ocean liners for another collector. That sort of thing has great appeal outside of Postcrossing.
@cliffside do you think the same might happen to the cards that we have nowadays in 50-70 years? Things we now see as ordinary will be interesting to some people later.
I visited this exhibition 6 years ago
(Translated with Google translator) from the site if the exhibition:
“the exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to admire a part of the 3,300 postcards conserved in the Comandini collection: these are mainly photographic postcards, from all the Italian regions and from some foreign countries.
The exhibition focuses on those of Italian origin and, in particular, on the postcards that best show how many and what changes the historic centers and, in some cases, the landscapes themselves have undergone. Unpublished, they constitute an important testimony of our country: the images have captured the appearance of many inhabited centers in the early 1900s, but also - in the case of the graphics - the advertising style adopted in the first half of the XX century.
Naturally, special attention was paid to Cesena and its territory, with the Romagna Riviera and its bathing establishments which were among the first to exploit this widespread advertising medium to illustrate their incomparable tourist offer.”
I think a postcard museum would be interesting, but I love (looking at) postcards. And they do feature or are art (whether it’s illustrations or photographs or something else).
@cliffside Wow that is cool and so generous of him. Thanks for sharing!
Probably not. The Golden Era for postcards was 1900-1920. Postcards through the 1950s still have appeal. But the demise of a number of postcard publishers has had an effect. Plus the remaining publishers often stick to safe subjects (like views).
If so it will be those of original art/design etc printed in limited numbers by individuals as opposed to the 30p views
I hope, the postcard museum will have a museum shop and sell postcards
if I did this, it would be a front for the ‘gift’ shop.
Only interested in postcards related to Chicago.
And this is the reason I encourgae people to make, design or print their own cards,
This is not a museum, but they do display postcards anyone sends to them on their Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/morepostcardsplease
This is mine : https://www.instagram.com/p/CCo5qEapz70/?img_index=2
There is a museum on the Isle of Wight (England), in Ryde called the Donald McGill Museum. He designed over 12,000 postcards in the period of 1920’s - 1960’s … they were comical ‘saucy’ cards. It’s full of all sorts of post cards and postal memorabilia , lovely little place to visit !
I went there back in June they have postcards but more in line with the history of USPS but they also have a amazing stamp collection if you’re into that
I visited an exhibition called 'The History of Russian Mail Art" at a small local gallery in Moscow not long ago and they told me I could send them my own postcards, but most of the exhibits there were handmade and I wouldn’t call myself crafty, haha… Still, I enjoyed my time there. Oh, and they had everything for making mail art right at the gallery
This was my favorite postcard created by a child. “Coffee maker”