On Souvenirs

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ON SOUVENIRS
by The Magpie

This article was originally printed in THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER & PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. August 17, 1909. p. 174. It offers some rather droll comments on the use of postcards which has not changed much since it was written.

I have never quite been able to understand the satisfaction with which people on tour send picture postcards to their friends who remain at home. The first duty on arrival at a fresh place is to visit the postcard depot, select local views galore, and post them at the proper times with the inspiring information that the sender had scaled that hill, skirted that waterfall, parted with his spare change at the birthplace of the local celebrity, or kissed the blarney stone. I suppose that it is really a matter of vanity, and I scarcely think that the receivers obtain the same amount of pleasure out of it as the senders themselves. There is something tantalizing about a postcard tour-to the one who stays at home. Moreover, I notice that it is the personal rather than the picturesque aspect which is to the fore on these occasions. Only this morning I received a postcard from a friend who is visiting Devon, giving an excellent view of the cobbled paths of old Clovelly-considerably better than the usual thing-but there was a penciled cross in one corner of the picture to call my attention to the fact that "We are stopping just here." Of course.

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an assortment of 19th and 20th century photographs taken by anonymous and still obscure photographers