Display Window Archive – Historic Postcards Greetings

Postcards were the social media of the 1900s: in Switzerland, thousands of greeting messages would be sent every day. The Browns were enthusiastic users of this mass medium, exchanging greetings with family, friends, and acquaintances all over the globe by means of these small illustrated cards. Over the years, a wealth of postcards accumulated. Their period-specific visual language brings us closer to a bygone world, one that sometimes appears very unfamiliar, and sometimes strangely familiar.

In 2021, for the first time, the Display Window Archive (Schaufenster Archiv) received its own presentation room on the first floor. Since 2019, the format has presented selected archival items from the extensive holdings of the museum archive on a theme that changes twice a year. In 2022, the focus will be on the historic postcard greetings and the Langmatt as a musical meeting place.

Large parts of the archive were systematically indexed and partially digitised in 2017–18. It contains, among other things, documents, letters, postcards, diaries and photographs from the Brown family estate. The time frame of the documents spans the years 1850 to 1987.

Main photo: Exhibition view Display Window Archive – Historic Postcard Greetings