Glimpses of the past
ear Gladys, that press you ordered has been here about three days. I will sell it again if you don’t hurry up. I have been too busy to send a card before. Thank you very much for that view. I have only 2 of Napier.’’
The postcard is dated June 19, 1906. On the picture side, it has a photo of English actress Marie Studholme. The message side has a bright pink New Zealand penny stamp.
It’s signed Mizpah – not a name, but a then-popular Biblical phrase meaning ‘‘may the Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from the other’’.
It’s hard not to wonder: did Gladys ever come to claim her press (flower press, printing press – or more probably, linen press)? Were the women sisters, relatives or friends?
In the late 19th and early 20th century, thousands of postcards flowed between Palmerstonians and people in other New Zealand places.
Postcards were the Facebook of yesterday, the shorthand of correspondence.
Cheap to send, easier to dash off than a letter, they were appropriate for all occasions, with a wide range of messages, pictures, photos or verses to choose from.
William Park, a former Palmerston North mayor and councillor, ran a stationers’ emporium on The Square. His own house, The Wattles, on the corner of College and Linton streets – and its spectacular garden – were themselves the subjects of several postcard views.
Scenes of The Square from all angles were popular, especially the butterfly lakelet and bridge (after 1909), the Grand Hotel (after 1906), All Saints Church (after 1913) and the King Edward VII coronation fountain (after 1904). So were novel views of trains passing through the town centre. As years passed, pictures of The Square gardens tracked changing planting styles and the growth of trees.
The first Post Office postcards were issued in 1876 – just plain penny cards for posting only within New Zealand. In 1907, ‘‘plain unvarnished’’ half-penny postcards were introduced. Reply postcards cost twopence and, later, penny cards could be sent to ‘‘all places’’.
In the early days, the paintings of travelling English landscape artist Laurence Wilson, including the Manawatu Gorge in full colour, were printed on postcards.
Later on, postcard photographers Alfred Burton, and Thomas Muir and George Moodie, tramped around the country lugging heavy cameras and glass plates, capturing every possible local town, city and scenic spot.
In 1902, with two daily mail deliveries around Palmerston North, it was possible in theory for someone to send a message across town in the morning and get a postcard reply back in the afternoon.
Postcard writers revealed their preferences: jokey cards, photos of pretty actresses, or noncelebrities in sentimental poses, cherubs and flowers, Maori themes, Christmas, country scenes and cityscapes. Some wrote big sprawling messages – others mere one-liners – or filled the whole card with tiny cramped writing, anxious to get every thought down before they ran out of room.
Reasons for writing? Often to reassure the family that the writer had arrived at his or her destination, or were on the way back, to describe a holiday, wish a happy birthday to someone, or to pass on local news.
One postcard sent by ‘‘Phyllis’’ to ‘‘Mary’’, on an undated Wednesday (after 1913, since it featured a photo of All Saints and the original lakelet bridge) reads in part: ‘‘The river came up 15 feet (4.57m). A bit more and it would have been serious. Crowds came down to see it and then to top it, two big herds of beef came along – great commotion. The bridge is a few yards from the gate, and the traffic – don’t mention it…’’
The NZ Truth of May 23, 1908 joked that ‘‘the heroes and heroines of the illustrated postcards are now known as photocrats’’.
The postcard trade had its murkier side. In the early 1900s, there are several New Zealand newspaper accounts of people being prosecuted for selling or displaying ‘‘indecent’’ (meaning coyly posed nude women) postcards. The offence could lead to a hefty fine or even several months in jail.
Eagerly awaited during World War I, postcards from local soldiers at the front were cherished by their families. On August 4, 1917, Frank Cammock, 23, sent a colourfully-embroidered postcard – one of several – to his sister Doris from a convalescent camp in France.
Tragically, after going back to active duty, the young Woodville labourer was killed six weeks later. Doris became Mrs Huia Mackrell. Her brother’s postcards are now held in Manawatu Heritage’s Mackrell archive.
Today, postcards are probably the most affordable kind of collectible, available in antique or bygones shops from about $2 to $10 each.
Yasmin Key, of Terrace End Antiques and Collectibles, says that many collectors seek postcards for the franking on the stamps – all that’s left of disappearing New Zealand post offices. Craftspeople and collectors of paper ephemera also like to reuse the postcard pictures in collages and other artwork. However, Key adds, the flood of oldtime postcards seems to be slowing.
‘‘I struggle to find them now.’’