Skip to Content

The Arts Intel Report

Real Photo Postcards: Pictures from a Changing Nation

Teacher in the Classroom, by an unidentified artist, circa 1914.

Mar 12 – July 25, 2022
465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA

The first cameras hit the market in 1888, a trend led by the quick-witted entrepreneur George Eastman. By 1903, the Eastman Kodak company was making something unprecedented—the postcard camera. People fought to get their hands on the small cameras, which printed negatives directly onto small postcards and changed the way they communicated. Friends and family could now share imagery from sites all over America. With 300 postcards on display, this exhibition sheds light on the U.S. at the turn of the century. What kind of images did people send to each other? What did they care about? —Elena Clavarino

Photo from the Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive/Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston