This week I have a selection of postcards.
On 14th May 1908, The Franco British Exhibition opened in White City. People travelled across the globe to attend the various exhibits and pavilions.
This first picture fits in nicely with my A-Z Challenge theme of Australia and you can read the other posts here via this tag line
On 24th May 1907 The Queen’s Memorial statue was unveiled in Melbourne. The pillars representing, Australia, Canada, India and South Africa.
This next postcard is from Southend in Essex and shows Empire Day which was celebrated across the “Empire” on 24th May. This is from 1905, the year it was first introduced. In 1958 Empire Day changed to Commonwealth Day and whilst is formally celebrated in parts of the Commonwealth it is not here in the UK, although the Queen attends a ceremony at Westminster Abbey
Taking part in Sepia Saturday
Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest 
One of the things I love about these postcards (at least in two of them) is that they are dated and we can see what the women are wearing. Images like these are so helpful in dating undated photographs when all we have to go by is the clothes people are wearing.
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I love postcards like this that have a date on them. Add me to the list of those who had never heard of Empire Day.
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Very interesting cards. I hadn't heard of empire day either. Do you think they also celebrated in India. Probably. Wonder if there are postcards from there.
Nancy
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Probably Bob. But I think we are OK…..it's historical!
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Very interesting; I have never heard of Empire Day. I liked learning about what the pillars stood for and seeing the great architecture of the buildings.
Thank you,
Kathy M.
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An interesting collection of cards. I'd forgotten about Empire Day – is it non-pc to mention the Empire these days?
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That is quite a handsome memorial.
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You could try downloading to your desktop(left click and drag). It does loose crispness though. This was a toad to scan – it came out several times very blurred.
Just thinking it was on 104 years ago that women were wearing long skirts. How times have changed!
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Interesting postcards Julie. I like the colours in that first one; I tried to enlarge it to study it more closely, but it wouldn’t go any bigger.
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I have one that had been sent to someone written in French. I had not realised until I bought this one that the there were different pavilions, although now it seems obvious!
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I have several postcards from the 1908 Franco-British exhibition but have never seen one of the Australia Pavilion before. Thanks for sharing.
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