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Boston Public Library
Greetings From Boston

Exhibitions

 

GREETINGS FROM BOSTON
An Exhibition of Postcards Celebrating our City

Now through April 30, 2011
Central Library Copley Square, Johnson Lobby

Monday-Thursday: 9-9
Friday and Saturday: 9-5

Greetings from Boston, an exhibition of vintage postcards currently on display in the Johnson Lobby, allows visitors to tour "vintage" Boston through postcards depicting some of the city's most famous places and spaces in bygone days.

This exhibition provides an extraordinary and nostalgic window into the cultural, social, and architectural history of early twentieth-century Boston and its vibrant neighborhoods. It features select framed postcards from the Boston Public Library's extensive postcard collection, which totals nearly 165,000 cards, and hundreds of photo-reproductions of Boston-area scenes, including main streets, civic halls, churches, businesses, schools, factories, parks, and transportation systems. Other highlights include a large-scale 1928 map featuring vintage postcards of Boston's most famous historic sites and iconic institutions, and "Greetings from Copley Square," a chronological look at the evolution of postcard design via a selection of postcards featuring Copley Square over a fifty year period.

This exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of two anonymous donors through the Boston Public Library Foundation.

View postcards featured in Greetings from Boston or browse the BPL's entire online collection of more than 4,500 Tichnor Bros. vintage postcards.

Press coverage

Beacon Hill Patch: "Vintage Postcard Exhibit Brings History to BPL Lobby," Kate Spalla, January 24, 2011.

The Huntington News: "Postcards a throwback to vintage Hub," Emma Shuck, September 23, 2010.

WBUR Boston: Radio Boston, interview and exhibition walkthrough with the BPL's Beth Prindle, Adam Ragusea, September 21, 2010.

The Back Bay Sun: "Greetings from Boston' at the BPL," Penny Cherubino, September 14, 2010.

Boston Globe: "Vintage Boston, no postage necessary," Sydney Lupkin, August 21, 2010. (Article available through BPL resources; library card number required)