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Showing posts from May, 2012

People's Friend Annuals 1950s

I picked up some old annuals from the 1950s at a car boot fair yesterday. I made a beeline for them because I thought they would help me understand how the 1950s woman thought she should behave and what she was 'supposed' to read. Aimed specifically at the older woman, each book has about 20 short stories of love, friendship, boredom, and all the stuff a good 1950s housewife or single lady needed to reflect on. Apparently some people collect these annuals just for the old adverts in them (will post these soon), but I really love the illustrations. Here are some...

3 Families from 3 Countries

Following on from my last post about a pamphlet on family health, I decided to blog about 3 photographic postcards of different families. They are all photographic postcards, all split back and all taken around the same time (1920s or 1930s). The really interesting thing is that they were taken in different countries and show normal lives that would inevitably change when WW2 began in 1939. Canada This photographic postcard was sent to me by a friend in Canada who collects all sorts of old photos and ephemera. It shows what looks like 3 generations of a family in the woods. The back is clear with no writing, but there is an AZO design for where the stamp should be placed. According to the website www.edinphoto.org.uk,this Kodak stamp design means we can date the photo to the period 1927-1940. Germany The next photographic postcard was taken in Germany. Unlike the card before, this does have writing on the back. So what was life like in F