Commemorative Acts and Narratives
Postcards are delightfully contradictory objects. They are ephemeral but eminently collectable, mass-manufactured in creation yet personal in use. They are physical records of intangible experiences and memories. Postcards facilitate commemorative acts, the discrete series of actions taken to mark, record, remember, and share an interpretation of a lived experience in a given moment and place. Postcards, then, serve as evidence of “the facts of the matter,” depicting a place, event, or figure, but also demonstrate the multiple narratives that can form around those “facts.” From words exchanged at a quick visit with a loved one to musings over the importance of a local landmark, “postcards offer a window into the world as it was viewed by the society of its time” and invite investigation into how that society’s approach towards remembering itself and commemorating its history has changed.