About 10 years ago, Lily Worrall decided she wanted to collect something, but didn’t have a lot of room to do so. She eventually decided to collect postcards of her hometown, Cornwall, Ontario. She thought it would be fun and not too expensive, and she was right on both counts. And genealogists and others benefit by viewing a glimpse of the past.
To share her postcards, Ms. Worrall created a website, Postcards of Cornwall, Ontario. In it, she has uploaded postcards of the eastern Ontario city, from the early 20th century to a few from the 1990s. To make it easy for visitors to browse, she has organized the postcards by topic. Topics include churches, hospitals, an orphanage, streets, businesses, and aerial views. An historical description appears below many of the images.
Postcards can be a good source of genealogical and historical information. Ms. Worrall said, “A church diocese was asking for photos of lost churches – those that were torn down, lost by fire, or unconsecrated and morphed into businesses or homes. I suggested they try postcards. They were amazed by what they found — clear photos, either black and white or colour of small and large churches from long ago.”
The House of Refuge, Cornwall, Ontario. Lily Worrall Collection. Postcards of Cornwall, Ontario website. Courtesy of Lily Worrall.
Ms. Worrall began her collection by buying several postcards from an antique dealer in Cornwall. She found a delightful surprise among her purchases. “Sitting at the kitchen table sorting them out, I turned one over and glanced at the message written on the back. I was totally shocked. It was a note written by my grandmother to my mother! Gram was advising mum that her son, mum’s brother and his wife, had just had a son and everyone was well and very happy.”
Creating the website has become a great way for Ms. Worrall to connect with other collectors, such as Clive Marin. Ms. Worrall said, “He has a much larger (more varied) collection of postcards than mine and he offered to lend me some of his binders so that I could scan the cards and share them online. I added Clive’s name to each card belonging to him.”
An antique collector also shared some old photos to go along with the postcard theme of places and businesses in Cornwall, and these are credited on the website as well.
Apart from Mr. Marin’s postcards and the old photos, all of the post cards on the website belong to Ms. Worrall. Most of her postcards were purchased on eBay and other websites.
Collecting postcards is not a new hobby. It has been around for more than 100 years.
“Postcards began in Europe in about the 1850s and became ‘the rage’ in America ca 1900, said Ms. Worrall. “I collect cards for Cornwall, but others collect by theme — Hallowe’en cards fetch a pretty penny because they are rare. The Campbell Soup Kids, Golliwogs, Mickey Mouse, frogs, trains, and of course Valentine’s Day cards, St. Patrick’s Day, funny cards, Christmas cards are only a few. I have a fistful of ‘we missed you at Sunday school’ cards and I’ve seen many advertising cards for various topics — pianos, change the oil on your car, etc.
“The English firm, Raphael Tuck, raised the bar on quality — and their cards are collectable. And artists like Katharine Gassaway, H.B. Griggs etc. are collectible for their highly recognizable artwork.
“In years gone by collecting stamps was the largest collecting hobby in the world. It was called the ‘Hobby of Kings’ — because even a king needs a hobby. Today genealogy has surpassed stamp collecting as a popular hobby, but collecting postcards is fun and relatively inexpensive.”
Through her website, Ms. Worrall has heard from people in Ireland, every province and territory in Canada, and many US states. “I’ve reconnected with classmates of the 1960s and former Cornwallites who live away and are lonesome for local news or just want to say hello.”
Visit Postcards of Cornwall, Ontario here. Find a topic and click through the series of postcards.
