i have just been informed of a super fun virtual lecture on postcards that will take place on April 7th and i figured some of us just miiiight be interested. 😉 here is a link to the event web page from the newberry library and i will paste the info below as well. it's great that it looks to be fairly easily accessible, as they will be streaming it on youtube and facebook (you don't need to register), and it seems they post their lectures on their channel afterwards in case you can't attend live.

The Rise and Fall of the World's First Social Network
Thursday, April 7th - 5-6 p.m. central time

Author Lydia Pyne and Newberry Curator of Americana Will Hansen explore postcards as artifacts at the intersection of history, science, technology, art, and culture.

Postcards are usually associated with mundane holiday greetings – but there's a lot more to them than that. They are made possible by sophisticated industries and institutions, from printers to postal services. And postcards first established what we now take for granted: the ability to send and receive messages around the world easily and inexpensively. Fundamentally, they are about creating personal connections—links between people, places, and beliefs.

In her new book, Postcards: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Social Network, Lydia Pyne examines postcards on a global scale to understand them as artifacts. In doing so, she shows how they were the first global social network. For this program, she will speak with the Newberry's Will Hansen, who oversaw the library's recent acquisition and processing of the Curt Teich Postcard Archives Collection, which includes more than 500,000 unique postcard images, along with related production and other company records.