Unwritten Postcards

A note from the curator.

"Unwritten" postcards are exactly what they sound like - old postcards that were bought, kept, and then never sent. No message on the back, no stamp, no postmark, no handwriting. Just the picture side and a blank reverse waiting for words that never came.

The museum proper is only ever for written postcards - the ones with a message, a stamp, an address, and someone's actual handwriting on the back. That's the whole point of the collection: to save the small, ordinary voices that would otherwise be lost. A blank card, however lovely, doesn't carry a voice, so it can't live on the main shelves.

But unwritten cards still pass across my desk all the time - tucked into bundles I buy, mixed in with written ones, or offered on their own. They're often beautiful: pristine lithographs, real-photo views of villages that have changed beyond recognition, stamps and printers and captions from another century. It feels a shame to send them back into the churn of car-boot sales and craft-project scissors just because they never made it to a postbox.

So this side shelf is where they land. I photograph each one, note where and roughly when it's from, add a short curator's note, and give an indicative value based on what similar cards tend to fetch. Nothing on the main museum is for sale - but the cards on this page are, quietly, if any of them find the right home.

If any of these catch your eye, please get in touch via the contact form - each card has a "Request to purchase" button that pre-fills the note for you.