Early postcards, vintage house a perfect pair for museum display
One of Vancouver's coolest small museums is having a cool small exhibit.
Literally.
Wish You Were Here showcases vintage postcards from the early 1900s, when Gustav Roedde and his family lived in a handsome Victorian home at 1415 Barclay in the West End.
Roedde House was restored in the 1980s and has been a museum since 1990, showcasing the way early Vancouverites lived.
The golden age of postcards was from 1900 to the First World War, after advances in printing technology allowed for the mass production of photographic images.
Vancouver has always been a tourist mecca, and the exhibition is filled with postcards from Stanley Park, including a rare early view of a bridge across Lost Lagoon, when it was still connected to Coal Harbour.
There is a lovely postcard of Barclay Street, back when it was all large homes, the street was made of gravel, the sidewalk was wood and the trees were still quite small — the original trees in the West End had been logged.
There is also a cache of novelty cards, including an amusing little image of a postman wearing a bag labelled “Vancouver.” It was apt to do a postcard like this — in the early 1900s, postmen sometimes delivered the mail several times a day.
“Postcards were the go-to communication,” said Sara Hepper, manager of Roedde House. “It was a cheap way to be able to send your message.
“We have been asking people to send in their postcards from the period that the family would have been here, so 1890s to the 1920s. Anything that was sent within Canada, to Canada or from Canada.”
The messages on the back can be quite charming.
“One person was writing back to his friend saying he hoped he was going to come back with a woman from Vancouver to Calgary,” Hepper said with a smile. “There was a mother who was writing to her sister saying they were going out in an automobile, which was a big deal. Her daughter had met someone who had one, and they were going for a trip.”
The postcards in the exhibit are supplemented by the type of travelling suitcase they would have used in the early 1900s. There is even a “postcard camera,” a Kodak No. 3A Folding Brownie, which used film specially cut to turn into postcards.
“You would take a picture and print a card in postcard size,” said Hepper. “(The negative) was the exact shape and size of a postcard.”
The camera is owned by collector Peter Lowery, who has an intriguing selection of vintage negatives and prints on display, including a print by Richard Maynard, one of B.C.'s earliest photographers.
The great Vancouver vintage clothing expert Ivan Sayers lent a wonderful piece, a circle skirt decorated with postcard scenes from Vancouver, Victoria and Banff. It's displayed alongside the postcards where the images came from.
The exhibit is quite small, but there's lots to see in Roedde House, an 1893 home that is decked out in period furniture. It's a beautiful structure — family lore is that it was designed by Francis Rattenbury, the celebrated architect who designed the Parliament Buildings in Victoria.
Gustav's wife Matilda's second-storey sitting room has one of the best bay windows in the city. Legend has it Matilda may have been only four foot eight inches tall, and the kitchen sink is still adjusted for her height.
Like other cultural institutions, attendance at Roedde House has declined through the pandemic. But it's now open Thursday, Friday and Sunday from one to four p.m., with a $10 entrance fee. You can show up, phone 604684-7040 or pre-book online at info@roeddehouse.org.