What to do with postcard collection?

[postcardcollection123]

My mum has collected thousands of postcards - mostly
in the eighties but has cards going back to 19th c and up to about 2012ish - people seemed to stop sending them around then, suppose with increasing access to internet it’s less of a thing .

They’re just stuffed in a trunk and not on display or anything . They’re great for eg social history (a lot have eg alcohol prices on the back!) and the letters are brilliant . Even have a handful that were written on top of the twin towers in the 80s by my great gran .

It’s a window into the past - as so, so many of the senders are sadly deceased now - it’s a glimpse into their lives even if most are pretty mundane !

Just wondering if others collect them and if so what do they do with them? Mum has significant mental health issues and this has brightened her up looking at them - it’s the most animated I’ve seen her in weeks, so I’d love to help her display them somehow or figure out how to share them with people ? Facebook seems the most obvious?

Rosslare one is Kelly's hotel in Ireland. Still trading except covid obv.

www.kellys.ie/

Your local auction house.

@postcardcollection123

Few more - not sure where Rosslare is (didn’t check back) so hopefully someone recognises !

Rosslare is in county wexford in Ireland.

Follow @pastpostcard on Twitter or look at their website
postcardfromthepast.co.uk/
There's even a book.!

I collect historic postcards of my own area. Some of the rare ones can go for £20 or more (though I almost never buy anything more than a fiver)

I bought an ‘old’ postcard off eBay not realising that it was a copy of an original postcard. Buyer beware !

@BearGum I follow Postcards from the Past on Instagram - the best bits are the snippets of writing on the back 😊

If you do a Facebook page please share the link! I love things like this!

@sunsetsand You may enjoy the pictures on the Guardian's site today- bottom of the front page in the 'In Pictures' section, "Seaside Heritage from the Air". A few of Morecambe.

I’ve kept a collection of postcards from a GM who was born in the 1890s and could remember the death of Queen Victoria.
They were in an album that was falling to bits, so are now in a tin.

They date back to early 1900s and are mostly pretty mundane (‘Mother’s cold is now better, we had tea with her yesterday’) but some will certainly help with family history research (when I finally get around to it) because of addresses and other info. about occupations.

I had been aware that a GGfather had owned a nursery (for plants) in SE London, but didn’t know where. Postcards with e.g. orders for carnations! revealed the address - there is now a block of flats with the same name as the nursery.

There was a particularly interesting one, saying something like (can’t remember exact wording) ‘Did you see in the paper about the suffragette meeting? Someone had said something about women being silly and scared of mice, so Emmeline Pankhurst released a lot of white mice at their meeting to prove them wrong!’

Yes - lost facts from the past, as well as images. Wonderful.

PS, one thing I found very poignant, was a postcard photo from a friend, of a lot of young, probably mid-teen girls in a formal seated shot, looking very serious and unsmiling.

However she had written, ‘We were all laughing so much, we could hardly keep a straight face!’

And all long dead. I did shed a little tear over that one.

Try stamp, antiques and collectors fairs when such things are allowed.

Just a few letters from the back ... have been sifting through them all day - think she probably does have ones that are worth ££ . Lots from ‘Ceylon’ (Sri Lanka I think?), Kenya and Faroe Isles . Dozens of B&Ws from Torquay and Sicily . Probably need to get them in better albums to be honest .

Letters (I’ve uploaded this to my own FB as well so hopefully I’m not recognised!) -

Jamaica, 1970s :

‘Have finally arrived after 22 hours ... my cold has gone and my back isn’t so sore now. It rains a lot and it’s very hot.’

Goa, 1980s:

‘It’s much too hot for me. Can’t wait to leave’

Tunisia:

‘The food is terrible and they only have coke .’

North Aberdeenshire , early 20th c.

‘She eats like a horse and made herself ill’

1980s - Devon - raining continually . The chef isn’t bad. Haven’t gone out once.

Blackpool - 1980s - I’m sitting listening to crap at the ballroom . The lights are OK .

1980s Highlands - The flowers were fine when I left, they better still be

1970s - Cornwall - The food is good but I have a funny tummy now’

1970s - Canada - X (man) is with me but I’m really wishing it was Y’

Some of the letters are brilliant . Makes you think how much people have spent on holidays to go there and complain ...