Postcards from Everywhere displays the architectural beauty, cultural vibrancy, and historical charm of urban landscapes around the world. Drawing inspiration from the Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive–a gift given to MFA Boston in 2010–this exhibition displays postcards dating from around 1900.

New York City

Postcards in this exhibition evoke a time when urban landscapes were filled with ambition and energy, mirroring global commerce trends and cultural movements.

Scholars have noted that postcards, as with other mass-produced media, often reflect dominant cultural mores, such as racism. One card featured a group of children fishing yet only contained white children despite showing several children of color in its original photo.

Postcards offer an invaluable glimpse into historical social issues and artistic styles, which makes the Lauder Archive an unparalleled repository of these cultural artifacts. Its scope and depth is truly impressive.

San Francisco

Picture postcards provide an invaluable “social archive”, providing us with insights into how people engaged with images and networks of social formation. Unlike other printed photographic media, picture postcards can be read from both sides, featuring detailed captions, printing styles, postal codes, dates, written messages and documentary images that reveal much about people’s engagement with images and networks of social formation.

Melissa Saenz Gordon is a photographer and book artist living in Ridgewood, New York. Her books and prints examine personal and imagined iconographies. For SFABF 2022 she created a box set of screen-printed art objects as well as an atlas of Forty Creeks in the Bay Area watershed as part of her program, emphasizing the importance of protecting cultural landscapes for future generations.

Paris

Paris is an epicenter for fashion, art, and cuisine. Its 19th-century cityscape – with wide boulevards crisscrossing across its landscape and the River Seine running through it – serves as host for several major international organizations.

The Seine runs below street level, dividing Paris into distinct sections. The banks of this UNESCO heritage site provide an oasis for contemplative strolls by Parisians looking to escape city life.

Place de la Concorde is the iconic scene of France’s Revolution and subsequent executions, including those of King Louis XVI towards the end of 18th century. Nowadays, however, it serves as a serene sculpture park; its tranquil ambiance may help avoid mobbing at Mona Lisa and allow for exploration within Musee d’Orsay museum’s vast former railway station interiors.

Rome

At the turn of the 20th century, postcards were an extremely common method for communicating daily matters across the world. Although disasters such as 1920 Haiyuan (Gansu) Earthquake that killed over 200,000 were barely mentioned by journalists; others, like 1906 Chilean Valparaiso earthquake depictions on postcards provided a snapshot.

Postcards represent the fuzzy line between production and consumption that media scholars have long recognized. Their inscribed texts, stamps, and collectors’ catalogues turn postcards into collectable objects with shifting social values that circulate widely within society. In this article we investigate motivations behind postcard depictions of disasters by investigating stakeholder interests that determine which events get shown and why. Using ten global disaster postcards as case studies this research shows how postcard production and use can provide historical meanings as well as cultural histories that would not otherwise come to light.

London

Step back in time and discover the intricate brushstrokes and faded hues found on old travel postcards from cities past. From architectural marvels to cultural vibrancy, these postcards reveal an illuminating history of global exploration.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, postcard production reached extraordinary levels. They were widely consumed and circulated – even in distant regions where disasters had struck.

Though postcards may not receive as much scholarly or market consideration as museum collections or photographic books, their impact has long been felt throughout society. Being widely accessible across social classes, postcards have had a lasting effect on shaping our understandings of our world in many different ways.

Berlin

Postcards epitomize media studies’ recognition of the hazy line between producers and consumers, as they combine image and text on one object intended for circulation. Postcards rework photographic images in different ways as they travel through culture of circulation: they refashion identities, form local networks and link dispersed communities.

An anonymous postcard serves to reveal a private secret while simultaneously forging relationships among strangers who share similar secrets, showing how postcards repurpose and extend reflexive ethnographic fieldwork activities and provide socially constructed perceptions of natural landscape and historical figure imagery.

Tokyo

Tokyo, the capital and largest city of Japan, serves as an economic, commercial and financial center; an industrial center for electronics and automobile production; as well as being home to domestic and international corporations.

Tokyo is also a cultural centre, with traditional Kabuki theatre to modern operas and symphonies as well as museums of art, science and history. Additionally, numerous urban centers near railroad stations can be found with department stores, shops, hotels and offices located nearby.

The postcard facilitated relationships between producers and consumers; created global and local networks; and combined photographic images into cultures of circulation – it was truly revolutionary medium.

Sydney

Sydney is a bustling cultural destination, featuring top restaurants and live performances. Take a guided tour to the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge for breathtaking harbor views or hop aboard one of many ferry cruises around its bay for an enjoyable journey.

Surf at Bondi Beach or relax along its famed coastal walk; Cockatoo Island offers visitors an intriguing insight into its former convict history.

The iconic Sydney Opera House, designed by Jorn Utzon, is one of the world’s best-known examples of Modern architecture. Take a walk through Sydney Fish Market for an exciting culinary experience featuring award-winning restaurants, cafes, bakeries and gourmet delis.