Snow Scenes in Postcards

For the last ten days or so, the nation’s weather forecasters have been addressing us in their self important faux-demotic on the subject of snow. In ever more apocalyptic terms we have been warned to expect unprecedented extremes of freezing temperatures and snowfall. If it was their intention to induce fear and dread, their success is demonstrated by reports of panic-buying of basic foods and supplies. TV newsgatherers have been out and about in the snow covered uplands in anticipation of blood curdling tales of human suffering – you can sense their disappointment when their interviewees respond with stoic acceptance of the tribulations of winter. In the meantime, the red tops have reworked the weather event as The Beast from the East in a phrase that neatly evokes the national paranoia over immigration that has poisoned political discourse in recent years. As a reminder that winter hardship was, and remains so for many, a routine event, we offer a selection of vintage postcards from winters past. To see some illustrations of snow scenes posted in 2010, please follow this link.

Postcard of the Day No. 82 – Seeing Niagara

Both Canada and the United States are proud hosts to one of Nature’s greatest spectacles – Niagara Falls. With such an enormous number of visitors it’s never long before the collector of postcards encounters one of the many hundreds of cards to feature this awe-inspiring sight. I salute the anonymous buyer of today’s card for having rejected all the conventional views on offer in favour of this distinctly sidelong glance. Half a dozen of tourists encased in heavy-duty rainwear pose for the camera in a rather random grouping. They are about to depart on a cruise that will expose them to a ritual soaking at the base of the Falls, visible behind them. Below is a selection of postcards where the publishers have focused on the local infrastructure or the transformation of the Falls in the depth of winter.