About the Exhibit

An American Abroad: Postcards from 1908-1909, features postcards collected by the Kinnear family while traveling during the 'Golden Era of Postcards' (1895-1915), the most popular period of postcard production. These artifacts operate like Facebook, text messaging, and Twitter all wrapped in one, yet unlike social media platforms, postcards are also produced to be collected. This particular selection and era show trends within modern history of the formation of identity, mass tourism, industrialization, and mass communication. Most importantly, postcards are objects of material culture, acting as visual references of what people value most at the time.