Postcards have long been a part of American material culture, yet they did not always look like they do now. Distinguished as cards intended for mailing without an envelope, their history extends back to the mid-nineteenth century. This exhibition charts the history of postcards from Delaware from 1898 through 2009. Drawn from the Library's Delaware Postcard Collection, these objects of local ephemera demonstrate not only how postcards changed over time but also how different Delaware locales developed throughout the last century.
This Special Collections exhibition is curated by Meghan Angelos, a Ph.D. candidate in Art History and the 2020–2021 Graduate Assistant in Special Collections. It launched online in March 2021.
All of the postcards in the Delaware Postcard Collection can be viewed in greater detail on Artstor.
Banner image credit: Dustin Frohlich, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press.
