More than 28,000 postcards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are available for anyone to search and view on the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec’s website (BAnQ).
The postcards show images of Quebec towns and villages and cover themes, such as city life, architecture, clothing, transport, agriculture, trades, industrialization, and recreation. There is only a very small handful of images of other provinces.
The images online are part of larger collection of about 60,000 original postcards maintained at BAnQ. More than a thousand Quebec cities and towns are represented in this collection, from the Magdalen Islands to the Outaouais and the Eastern Townships. Montreal is particularly well represented with more than 11,000 postcards, and more than half of these are available on the BAnQ website.
This image of Montreal in 1851 is part of a vast online collection of postcards at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Created by August Köllner. Published by Goupil & Co., New York. Number 3613948.
While the search terms are in French, even the most unilingual English-speaking genealogists will find it easy to navigate. It is just a matter of knowing where to enter keywords and how to narrow done the search results.
You can search for a specific topic, such as hockey or fishing, a location, or the name of the person who created the postcard.
Search results of BAnQ’s online postcard collection can be narrowed down by selecting a specific subject or location in the left margin.
Use English and French keywords
While a search for church produces more than 1,000 results, a similar search for the French equivalent, église, produces more than twice as many results. This suggests that if you do not find what you want using an English term, try the French equivalent.
Search for Cartes postales
To limit your search to postcards, select Cartes postales in the box immediately to the right of the search box.
Read the back
When you find an image that interests you, such as the one below of St. Matthew’s Church, click on it to read the details about it. Think of it as reading the back of the postcard for the caption.
In the Sujets (subject) line, you will see how this postcard was categorized with a hyperlink to other images in the same category. In the case of St. Matthew’s Church, you can choose to look at 60 more Anglican churches — Églises anglicannes — or more than 1,000 other postcards of images of Quebec City — Québec (Québec).
Download the image
To download a low resolution image of the postcard, click on Accéder à l’image. To order a high resolution, click on Commander l’image. You can also print (imprimer) the image with information by clicking on Imprimer la notice.
The key is to explore this collection, trying several different keywords, in English and/or French.
Start searching the postcards on the BAnQ website.
Permission to use
The BAnQ allows the use of the contents of its Web portal for educational, private study, or research purposes without specific authorization, provided the source is indicated. Any other use, notably for commercial purposes, in any form whatsoever, requires the prior authorization of BAnQ and, where applicable, of the beneficiaries when BAnQ does not own the rights.
