There was a time you didn't call, you didn't text and you definitely didn't tweet. If you wanted to get in touch with someone on the other side of Hamilton, you sent a postcard.
No, really.
"Kids don't get it," said Jon Soyka. Postcards "were the Twitter or the email of the turn of the century."
Soyka, president of the Golden Horseshoe Post Card Club, provides a window into that time when postcards were king in a new book called This is a Beautiful City — a popular seller at independent book shops during the holiday season.
Jon Soyka, President of the Golden Horseshoe Post Card Club, said he wants to make two more books full of post cards from the region's past. (John Rieti/CBC)
The postcards, collected by the club's 45 or so members, are a visual treat that beg to be examined closely. You can instantly compare the streetscapes of past and present, you can check out the outfits of Hamiltonians of the past, or just enjoy the beauty of some of the hand painted cards.
But it's also fun to read through the messages, which range from simple a "meet me here" to more personal (and sometimes flirtatious) notes like "I am just as happy here as if I were in London … lots of fellows, one for everybody."
The book has been curated to show the most striking cards from the downtown core. Soyka said it will be the first of three eventual books.
"If we put all the cards in this book, we would have had to sell legs with it because it would have been the coffee table," Soyka joked.
It's easy to understand why there are so many postcards when you realize some 60 per cent are just sent to check in on people. One in Soyka's collection simple says "are you dead?"
A historic hand-painted post card, a rare find for collectors, is one of the most striking in Soyka's book. (Submitted by Jon Soyka)
That demand for cards — and the fact that they were half the price of a letter — drove the creation of scores of postcards, many bearing unique images of Hamilton and the surrounding region.
"Can you imagine if you had to go to a store to buy a tweet? There would be stores selling nothing but tweets," Soyka said.
"However, a hundred years from now, is your text going to be anywhere?"
While the book's publication will appeal to Hamilton boosters, Soyka said it wasn't necessarily the goal of postcard-makers of the past to promote the city.
"Most postcard companies were based in other major cities such as Toronto, Montreal, London and Germany … they could not care less about one particular place, such as Hamilton," Soyka said.
"They're just selling a product, that's all."
While big companies didn't care about individual cities, photographers did. Enter Harry A. Ellis, who ran a downtown studio between 1908 and 1920.
"Ellis would go out in all types of weather and conditions to photograph events, people working, playing and celebrating. He took those photographs and produced numerous postcards for sale to the public," Soyka said.
Those images of Hamilton, once turned into postcards, went worldwide and are still valuable collectors items.
"I think I could be correct in saying that he was the first real promoter of Hamilton in a worldly way, without knowing it," Soyka said.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Hamilton postcards provide glimpse into city’s history
Dengan url
https://hemiltoninfo.blogspot.com/2015/01/hamilton-postcards-provide-glimpse-into.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Hamilton postcards provide glimpse into city’s history
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Hamilton postcards provide glimpse into city’s history
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar