The turbulent history of the postcard | The Press

Even before the pandemic, it was more and more rare: to open the mailbox and discover a beautiful postcard sent by a loved one on a trip to the other side of the world. A few words, an anecdote, impressions. A signature, three small x’s signifying as many kisses.

Mary Tison
The Press

The card, especially if it made you dream, ended up on the fridge, fixed with a small magnet.

With the advent of social networks, the youngest have abandoned the postcard to document their trip practically live, on Facebook or Instagram. No postcards to buy, no stamps to find. “The new generation, which grew up with the Internet and cell phones, has completely abandoned this medium of communication,” says Claude Lavergne, president of Créations Manitou, the largest postcard publisher in Quebec and Eastern Ontario.

“Since 2000, we’ve been talking about a 60% to 70% drop in sales worldwide,” maintains Mr. Lavergne.

At the time, Créations Manitou had to visit souvenir shops in Old Montreal every week to fill the displays. “We only go there once a month. »

New calling

Mr. Lavergne is careful to point out that this drop took place even before the pandemic. The lockdown obviously made things worse because foreign tourists had to stay home. They are the ones who buy the postcards, not the tourists from the neighboring region. “The further people come from, the more cards they buy,” he says.

Despite everything, the postcard will not disappear. It will simply continue its transformation. Thus, many people do not buy cards to send them by mail, but to keep them. “If you go to Percé Rock on a rainy and foggy day and you are unable to see it, you will buy a card as a photo,” says Mr. Lavergne.

The company continues to offer safe bets, such as tourist sites, landscapes marked by the passage of the seasons and specimens of Quebec wildlife. “Canada is identified with wildlife,” recalls Mr. Lavergne. And it always interests the children. If a child goes to a souvenir shop, it’s not Saint Joseph’s Oratory that he’s going to look at, it’s the little animals. »

It is not necessary to constantly renew the equipment. Unless, of course, a new hole develops at Percé Rock. “The beautiful moose from 20 years ago is pretty much the same, genetically speaking, as the one from 2022.”

As far as tourist sites are concerned, there is no question of offering unusual angles. “People like to buy what they see,” explains Claude Lavergne. At the Olympic Park, a photographer can lie down on the ground to take an architectural photo showing extraordinary angles in the concrete. It may interest an architecture student, but that’s not how people see the Olympic Park. »

Already a long story

In Canada, the ancestor of the postcard is the “postal stationery”, which appeared in 1871. It was a simple pre-franked box issued by the Post Office Department which was mainly used for business correspondence, indicates the historian Yves Beauregard, a great collector who participated in the founding of the Club des cartophiles québécois, in 1991.

In response to what was happening in Europe, the Ministry began to include images on these cards and, from 1897, allowed companies to offer postcards as well.

It was the beginning of the golden age of the postcard.

“It has become a real passion among Canadians and elsewhere in the world,” says Mr. Beauregard.

The First World War dampened the enthusiasm and it was not until the 1950s that there was a small recovery. But it will never reach the fervor of the golden age of past years.

In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, radio and television stations that held contests asked viewers to write the answers on a postcard. “It was less complicated than envelopes that had to be opened to get the answers,” says Mr. Beauregard. It made a lot of collectors happy because the stations resold the lots of cards to stores left and right. I once found a postcard on the market that my sister-in-law had sent! »

New privacy legislation, however, put an end to this petty trade, and stations had to destroy the batches of cards instead of reselling them.

The creation of the Club des cartophiles québécois, the only French-language club in the Americas, created a new market for collectors, with shows, auctions and classified ads in a newsletter. “Over the years, we started to be a little studious club, to do research on map publishers, to make directories,” says Yves Beauregard.

But like philately, collecting postcards is losing popularity. “It’s quite difficult to recruit young people, recognizes Mr. Beauregard. But there are plenty of postcards that have cartoon characters; it can make a link with the sensitivity of young people, it could lead them. »

The market is expanding with players like Kijiji or Marketplace. “It’s a bit in competition with the club’s activities, but the social aspect remains important,” says Mr. Beauregard. The club can serve as a link. There are people who travel across Quebec to meet other collectors. »

“The purpose of a postcard is to travel,” says Mr. Beauregard, philosopher.