GrazMuseum
The City in Postcard Format. Digitizing a Postcard Inventory in the GrazMuseum
The project aims to develop a collection of about 9,000 illustrated postcards in total relating to Graz and/or Styria and to make them accessible. The collection contains primarily topographical views of streets, alleys, and squares in Graz but also various subjects from the public space (restaurants, trade, markets, public buildings), historical views (processions, demonstrations), and greeting and advertising cards from around 1900 until the present day whereby the collection rather focuses on the first half of the twentieth century.
Both the front and the backside will be depicted on our website. Moreover, we take both views into account when indexing the postcards, which will allow users to investigate the collection from specific urban history and media history points of view.
The project draws its relevance for the Styrian knowledge and cultural space from its intention to provide the general public with access to an essential medium of everyday culture. By browsing the inventory, you can search for specific places in the city or specific periods, or search for specific subjects using keywords. Conclusions regarding postcard production, local publishers and photographers, reproduction processes, and, last but not least, historical communication practices can be drawn as well.