I discovered the finding aid titled, Finding Aid to Postcards of California, Oregon, and Washington, circa 1898-circa 1939, and decided to select this collection to analyze because I find historical landscape photos fascinating. This postcard collection is composed of 270 digitalized postcards, all photographed in black and white. These postcards display either scenic landscapes or tourist attractions. All of them were photographed in either California, Oregon, or Washington, between the years 1898 through 1939. Places are included such as the University of California at Berkeley, Kings Canyon National Park, Mount Shasta, Death Valley, Los Angeles, Riverside, Seattle, and Mount Rainer.
Based on the materials in this collection, various historical narratives could be assumed from each individual postcard. The postcards capture a single moment and location in history, and it is up the viewer and their own personal accumulation of knowledge to determine what sort of narrative a particular postcard shows. Since photography captures only what something looks like, but not the meaning behind it, it is difficult to determine precisely what narrative is being told. These postcards recollect moments in time and allow for cultural and historical understandings to be implied. This postcard collection may be interpreted by its viewers in many unique ways, and not one set narrative is being told.
If one were to base a narrative strictly from the records in this collection, a lot would be missing. There are not any people in these postcards, and because of such, a displacement of emotion occurs. These postcards show only scenery and structures, which aids in informing viewers about the architectural progressions humanity has made, and possibly about the way society functioned on an infrastructural level, but it does not allow viewers to come to any conclusions regarding the actual relations of society at the particular time. Viewers would not be able to tell a narrative about any social interactions from this postcard collection. Additionally, only select locations were included in this collection, and other locations were ignored. This causes a silencing of the other locations in history. Equally important landmarks and sceneries are missing from this collection.
In order to address these gaps, other collections of photos would need to be studied. Photographs of many other landmarks and sceneries, and those which included people, would be essential. These photographs would need to be from the exact same time period in history, and also from the same locations of California, Oregon, and Washington. By analyzing historical photographs of more locations as well as of society, viewers would be able to come to a more rounded understanding of Califorina, Oregon, and Washington during that time period.
Hi,
I also find collection of postcard that features mostly historical landscape an interesting way to look back to our society. I enjoyed reading your analysis regarding the need of “constructivism” in order to interpretate the meaning behind these photos and that studying these post card by their face value will hardly reflect anything about the society. Through merely looking at postcards, there will be a huge amount of silencing as usually, only the “best” version of a certain location will be presented and the social issue underneath each era will not be shown.