Imperial War Museum First World War Galleries

I’ve written before on this blog about when a postcard stops being a postcard and becomes a flyer. As a collector it’s mildly irritating to have to root through the freecard racks in cafés, cinemas and bars checking the backs of each to see if they are PCs or not. The perils of a postcard collector.

I picked up these two new cards from the rack in Bar Italia, Soho, one of my favourite places to waste my time and people-watch. I’ve decided there’s just enough room to use these as postcards to warrant inclusion on the blog, and, anyway, I like them. Both have been published to advertise the recently refurbished Imperial War Museum’s First World War Galleries and use a single image to convey how a simple object can tell a much more intricate story. It’s a similar approach that was used in the fascinating BBC and British Museum exhibition A History of the World in 100 Objects. Here the objects are a can of army ration beef and vegetables, with the tagline “I am trench Masterchef”  and a poignant (and philatelically interesting) 1917 letter notifying the recipient of a loved one killed in action, with the moving tagline “I am a cancelled wedding”. Both cards have the same information on the reverse, details of the exhibition and credits for the sponsors and supporters.

I’m sure that these postcards won’t be the last to be produced to coincide with the centenary of the World War I. if you’re interested in the subject you might like to read this post on my other postcard blog about a specific postcard written in 1917 and the journey it has take me on to find it’s writer.