Stamps Postcards and Beer!

Stamps - Post Cards and Beer

We always assume we are such original thinkers, and maybe we are? But when we look back at childhood influences (not the beer of course - that came later, at least late teens!*) it is surprising how many are travel related. We have lots of examples in the museum such as stamp books, post cards and even tea and cigarette cards, and of course uncles, aunties, and parents and grandparents probably influenced our love of travel and the need / desire to see the world.

*Alcohol is generally not good for you and is linked with several cancers, so either don’t do it or moderation. Or as our grandmother used to say everything in moderation - including moderation itself! Nice to have a blow put now and again.

The stamp market collapsed and all but the rarest have little or no value, but the value is not in the pound or dollar value but the social history value. Stamps like bank notes offer an exciting insight into how countries see themselves, politics, animals now extinct, and a world that has largely been forgotten. As a child growing up it was our mirror into a largely unknown world - did these places and things really exist?

To put a back drop on it, in the 60’s and 70’s we had no internet, World Wide Web, phones (mobile or otherwise often) or access to books., unless you visited the public library. TV was 3 channels and for many years in black and white, so sources of information were limited, and often it was just a tantalising glimpse into another world.

It wasn't just stamp collections, but in the 50’s cigarette cards, and later in the 60’s and 70’s tea cards. When we look at the titles such as Flags of the World and Race to Space it is not surprising that this subliminal messaging has sinked into our psyche. In other words those independent thought patterns we thought we had have been externally, subliminally almost, influenced over the generations.

Post Cards

Post cards back in the day were and probably still are the equivalent of the boast / the latter-day selfie. Hey look at me - we’re having a great time in XYZ and you're not! We never sent them with that intention, and we still love to send them even to this day, but it is getting harder to find postcards and often even harder to find stamps! Let alone a box to post them in. The usual content of post cards was chit chat, a bit about the weather, scenery, where you had been or were going - “just come back from Copan - it was amazing,” that sort of thing. Animals and wildlife of note, even the odd smattering of the local language. Beer prices seems to figure in cards from our youth! and of course any adventures scuba, dog sliding, skiing. Many are bereft of detail and just say “Having a great time - see you soon” or “Hello House” (and yes we used to and still do send a card to the “House”) saying usual stuff that you would send to a house.

When we look back at them (apart fro the atrocious spelling and hand writing - often written on a bus - or a bucking bronco by the looks of some of them) they are like stamps a snap shot of a time and place., and when you can read the date stamps great dating evidence as well. There are some such as Beruit in the Lebanon and more recently Ukraine which are poignant reminders of better times before war intervened, and others of spectacular sights, but the one that facinate us the most are just the ones of ‘ordinary” people and transport - the fashions and ideals of yesteryear.

Patches, Stickers and Walking Stick Badges.

Collecting patches were another common occupation of the seasoned traveller and back packer that seems to have fallen from grace. You don’t even have to sew them on, many are iron on these days. They formed a similar function to the post card, a mobile billboard of look at me - I’ve been to loads of places. The equivalent of todays Facebook posting, What’s App ground or other social media.

Some are really well made and again like the postcard capture a space and scene in time. They are certainly more durable than social media. Who knows maybe they will make a come back, but with todays modern fabrics I wouldn’t count on it.

It was common to put them on jackets, hats and back packs a symbol of your passage of rights as an experienced back packer. An outward representation of your travel credentials, but people have moved on, and more likely is that lists such as MTP (Most Traveled Persons) TCC (Travellers Century Club) and Travel Mania have replaced these as more global recognition.

Walking sticks - particularly the wooden type were another perhaps more local medium to display your travel credentials, but mainly local such as the Lakes, Derby or a particular mountain range. Again as wooden sticks have fallen out of fashion, largely replaced by Leki and other brands, with foldable carbon fibres, or not used at all. We don’t have any walking stick badges in our collection.

Stickers. It was very common in the 90,s and 00’s for adventure equipment manufactures, but particular climbing, skiing and scuba diving to provide advertising sticker with purchases, with the intention you add these to your suitcase and kit bags to advertise their kit and your sporting prowess. Many of our cases were decked out in stickers of the day, but a lot fell off. They were not designed to be durable. emerging technologies such as Go Pro cameras, dive and ski schools, as well as dive regulator and kit manufactures made their way onto bags and boxes. Some are still pretty “cool'“ like “Estrange Space” launch centre and “Ice Camp Barneo”, but others are dated or to Kitsch! Thank god we don’t have any “Hello Kitty” ones. Again they all tell a story of what was going on in the travel and adventure world and the types of sports we would have been engaged in. Grivel for example ice axes and crampons, Apeks and Custom Divers, Sports and Tech Diving.

Some Examples from the extensive Museum of Travel collection.

We have hundreds of postcards from every continent, from the 1950;s to current day, as well as stamps, patches, stickers and even a few fridge magnets - another popular souvenir collecting pastime.