Norena Shopland
Postcards are always a good and relatively cheap way to build up any collection. While it is harder to find those representing sexual orientation and gender identity, it is possible to find some items, particularly of more well-known people, such as the Ladies of Llangollen around whom a whole merchandising business grew up in the early 19th century. There are thousands of postcards of the Ladies, and their house Plas Newydd, listed on sale sites, but in reality, there is only a specific number of images, and once those have been exhausted where does one go to continue to build the collection? One way is to read the backs of the postcards as some of the comments can give an indication of what the guides were telling visitors about the Ladies, such as this postcard posted on 4.30 on 30 May – we don’t know the date because the postmark has been curtailed, but it has to be roughly between 1936 and 1952 because the stamp is of King George VI.
It begins, ‘these two old ladies ran away together long age, from some people who were unkind to them’ and nothing about their true relationship, unsurprising as during this period a same-sex relationship would have been unacceptable.
