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“The Happy Invention: History & Significance of Picture Postcards” with Katherine Hamilton-Smith and Illinois Road Scholars

June 6, 2024 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

June 6 @ 5:00pm – 6:00pm

As a public speaker and founding curator of the Curt Teich Postcard Archives, now at the Newberry Library, Katherine Hamilton-Smith brings a fascinating piece of local cultural history to life: the invention of the picture postcard, right here in Illinois! Hamilton-Smith presents a look at the documentary power and significance of picture postcards, the role Illinois played in the history and development of postcards, and on the picture postcard as a cultural icon, including local postcards!

Attend this event and earn 100 points towards your 2024 Summer Reading program!

“The first picture postcards were published for the 1889 Paris Exposition, celebrating the completion of the Eiffel Tower. In America, the first picture postcards were printed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago —making Illinois the birthplace of the American picture postcard. Since those flowery Victorian originals, uncountable billions of postcards of every aspect of life have been printed, depicting train stations and bandstands, street views and cartoons, ads for products and services, ‘beauties’ and ‘freaks,’ social history both whimsical and dark, and everything in between. An early mention of postcards is in the 1870 diary of a Welsh curate, who called them “a happy invention.”In 2016, the world’s largest public collection of postcards and related materials, the Curt Teich Postcard Archives, was given to the Newberry Library by the Lake County Forest Preserve District. Katherine Hamilton-Smith, the founding curator of the Teich Archives, presents a look at the documentary power and significance of picture postcards. She touches on the Curt Teich Company of Chicago, the role Illinois played in the history and development of postcards, and on the picture postcard as a cultural icon.”

The event will be co-produced by the Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau, which invites Illinois authors, artists and educators to share their expertise and enthusiasm with people throughout the state, enabling local nonprofit organizations to present free-admission cultural programs to their communities. Illinois Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy Demands Wisdom and the Illinois General Assembly [through the Illinois Arts Council Agency], as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations.

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Date:
June 6, 2024
Time:
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
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