About the Postcards Database

The Postcard Collection encompasses postcards dating from the early twentieth century to the present that document tourist attractions in the Historic Triangle area, including Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. Cards relating to Colonial Williamsburg range from turn-of-the-century souvenir cards of the Powder Magazine when operated as an APVA historic site to present-day cards sold in Colonial Williamsburg gift shops.

One miscellaneous volume of postcards documents other historic sites in the general vicinity of Williamsburg, such as the James River plantations, Mount Vernon, Fredericksburg, and Richmond. Another miscellaneous volume contains postcards of architecture in other states, Canada, and Europe that were collected by some of Colonial Williamsburg’s early architectural historians.

The postcards are arranged in binders by location. Cards of Colonial Williamsburg buildings and gardens are arranged by block and building number.

Mr. John M. Ferguson, Jr., a Library Volunteer, created a simple Microsoft Access database to track and index the Postcard Collection. Searchable fields within the database include Block and Building Number, Postcard Title, Date, Publisher, and Subjects. Mr. Ferguson constructed his own subject terms, loosely based upon the subject headings used by the Curt Teich Postcard Archive. Mr. Ferguson's work is the basis for the web-accessible database.

To search the database, enter a keyword or search term. You will see a list of volumes which match the term. Click on an individual volume to show the full record, which includes the following fields:

The actual postcards can be found in Visual Resources at the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library.