March 20, 2017
SCOTTISH POSTCARDS: EDWARDIAN ERA with Barbara J. Becker
Barbara J. Becker presented a visual but partial representation of her maternal grandmother, Christina Campbell Dewar’s postcard collection. Deltiology, postcard collecting, was all the rage in Scotland during King Edward’s reign, 1900 – 1910. Working as a cook in a Victorian mansion in Edinburgh, Christina Campbell amassed over 350 postcards from 1904 – 1908. The cards came with her when she emigrated to Winnipeg in 1910.
The postcard collection, a family heirloom, has passed from grandmother, to mother, to Barbara. Most recently it has gained a life of its own. Barbara explained how she collaborated with Dr. Karen Malcolm at the University of Winnipeg to produce, present and publish linguistic papers that focused on the text on the back of the postcards for insights into use of language by predominately domestic servants of that era and locale.
The postcards samples Barbara chose to present for this talk, were in the categories of: people, celebrities, events, cityscapes, seascapes, churches, bridges, rural and castles. She briefly touched on the early processes used to colour many of the postcards. Colour film was not developed until well into the 20th century and the colour on these postcards was applied by artists in either dots or transparencies.
People represented on the postcards tended to be domestic women and working men (soldiers, miners). During the Edwardian era, women were gravitating away from domestic service and into factories and offices. They were much in demand as typists because they were thought by males of the time to be empty headed and therefore better able to handle the tasks presented by recent inventions like the typewriter.
Bridges that appeared on postcards, like the castles, and the cityscapes, highlight the tremendous skills of the Scottish people to construct imposing structures. Rural scenes were idyllic and inviting. Much like today, there was a great deal of focus on the theatre and the demure young women who graced postcards and provided entertainment to one and all; domestics on the main floor of the theatre, and their employers in the balcony. Food and drink suitable to class was provided at these performances.
Barbara also spoke a bit about the insights she had gained into what her grandparents, both maternal and paternal, coming from the Edinburgh of that time, to the Winnipeg of that time, must have felt and experienced. Edinburgh was cultured, structured and even botanically superior to what was yet to develop in their new home.
Barbara took this opportunity to show how she had used the postcards and their messages to create what is termed a “creative memoir”. This short story which Barbara read was published in M.D. (Dorene) Meyer’s 2006 anthology, Prairie Writers, Vol. 1. Playing with data and messages from the back of the postcards, she contrived a convincing tale.
Recently Barbara has been applying genealogical research to her understanding of some of the people who contributed to Christina Campbell’s collection. This opens a variety of new mysteries that she hopes further research will clarify. For example, an A. Spence of her grandmother’s acquaintance appears to be buried in a military grave in Newington Cemetery. Are they one and the same? Perhaps.
SCOTTISH POSTCARDS: EDWARDIAN ERA with Barbara J. Becker
Barbara J. Becker presented a visual but partial representation of her maternal grandmother, Christina Campbell Dewar’s postcard collection. Deltiology, postcard collecting, was all the rage in Scotland during King Edward’s reign, 1900 – 1910. Working as a cook in a Victorian mansion in Edinburgh, Christina Campbell amassed over 350 postcards from 1904 – 1908. The cards came with her when she emigrated to Winnipeg in 1910.
The postcard collection, a family heirloom, has passed from grandmother, to mother, to Barbara. Most recently it has gained a life of its own. Barbara explained how she collaborated with Dr. Karen Malcolm at the University of Winnipeg to produce, present and publish linguistic papers that focused on the text on the back of the postcards for insights into use of language by predominately domestic servants of that era and locale.
The postcards samples Barbara chose to present for this talk, were in the categories of: people, celebrities, events, cityscapes, seascapes, churches, bridges, rural and castles. She briefly touched on the early processes used to colour many of the postcards. Colour film was not developed until well into the 20th century and the colour on these postcards was applied by artists in either dots or transparencies.
People represented on the postcards tended to be domestic women and working men (soldiers, miners). During the Edwardian era, women were gravitating away from domestic service and into factories and offices. They were much in demand as typists because they were thought by males of the time to be empty headed and therefore better able to handle the tasks presented by recent inventions like the typewriter.
Bridges that appeared on postcards, like the castles, and the cityscapes, highlight the tremendous skills of the Scottish people to construct imposing structures. Rural scenes were idyllic and inviting. Much like today, there was a great deal of focus on the theatre and the demure young women who graced postcards and provided entertainment to one and all; domestics on the main floor of the theatre, and their employers in the balcony. Food and drink suitable to class was provided at these performances.
Barbara also spoke a bit about the insights she had gained into what her grandparents, both maternal and paternal, coming from the Edinburgh of that time, to the Winnipeg of that time, must have felt and experienced. Edinburgh was cultured, structured and even botanically superior to what was yet to develop in their new home.
Barbara took this opportunity to show how she had used the postcards and their messages to create what is termed a “creative memoir”. This short story which Barbara read was published in M.D. (Dorene) Meyer’s 2006 anthology, Prairie Writers, Vol. 1. Playing with data and messages from the back of the postcards, she contrived a convincing tale.
Recently Barbara has been applying genealogical research to her understanding of some of the people who contributed to Christina Campbell’s collection. This opens a variety of new mysteries that she hopes further research will clarify. For example, an A. Spence of her grandmother’s acquaintance appears to be buried in a military grave in Newington Cemetery. Are they one and the same? Perhaps.
