Over 25 years ago, while my mother and I were cleaning out her mom's home in Illinois, we discovered the postcards displayed for different holidays were only a fraction of thousands of cards. Cards with their nostalgic art and unique stories, tucked away in drawers and trunks, hidden from the world... so sad.
My grandmother's family was well-known in the area. Ella was a teacher and wrote a column in the newspaper, and the family owned a small engine repair shop. They lived in one of those big Midwestern houses where visitors were plenty... More than once, I heard “Ella, I’ve got more postcards for you” with grandma saying "Go on up and put them up in the attic."
Ella became the keeper of postcards, many sent prior to her 1906 birth. Many names aren't part of my family tree, but they may be part of yours... Seeing a card from my great-grandmother to her husband in the early 1900s is something others should be able to experience as well. Think of all the people who would be interested in these stories. As the current keeper of the cards, I want to share the stories.
Over 6,000 postcards from my grandmother's collection are stored in 4x6 archival bags in dressers. Others are in collection books lovingly created... it's what people did before telephones, TVs, computers, and social media.
Originally, I envisioned displaying the postcards in a show, much like a quilt show. Visitors could wander around, reading the handwritten stories in pencil, feeling the nostalgia of a time gone by, and maybe even connecting with their own history. But that was a bit too grand for me at the time (though I still think it would be a cool idea and it’s not off the table for the future).
I reproduced some of the postcards and created fold-over note cards—images on the front, stories on the back—hoping to sell them on my Etsy store and bring in some money. They didn’t.
Through the Des Moines Farmer’s Market Incubator program, I had the opportunity to showcase the cards at the market. A lot of people stopped by and thought the idea was great, but I made less than $50. It would take millions to reproduce all of them, and even then, people wouldn’t be able to find them.
What I needed was an interactive website with a searchable database to help others uncover their histories. But to make that happen, I had to learn how to build it myself. So, I went back to college for web development and am now finally working on getting my grandmother’s postcard collection, as well as additional cards I collected online at ellasechoes.com.
Let's keep our ancestor's stories from being hidden away in boxes or drawers.
