Description/Instructions

Postcards on Covid-19 – Pandemic of 2020-2022

Postcards have always been used to document historical events. The pandemic of 2020-2022 is no exception, with many artists illustrating life during these years. They artistically depicted the lockdowns and staycation, the frustrations of fighting the virus, the heroic response by essential workers such as doctors, nurses, and the delivery of goods to a confined population. 

This digital catalog tries to document the postcards edited during these years on the topic. There are over 1800 entries (and growing) from 61 countries. Most of the postcards are from two large collections by Mark Routh (UK) and Clarissa Ferraris (USA).  Each postcard was scanned; sometimes front and back if the back was unusual or interesting. All the important information known was added, such as the name of the artist, country of origin, websites and links if known, and more.   

The authors welcome more additions, please complete the form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HJO888ZZkxFL055T6sqxlePXCxeCghHhsdX7ziyjACo/edit?usp=sharing

Note: to reference the database in publications write:  “Postcards on Covid-19 – Pandemic of 2020-2022 Digital Catalog” by Wichita Postcard Club, Mark Routh and Clarissa Ferraris, https://sites.google.com/view/covidpostcardsdatabase/home?authuser=0

Search and Sort the Database

Search the digital catalog  by several fields:  (see instructions below)

• Topics:  Animals, coronavirus, earth-World view, essential workers, greetings, health messages, humor, lockdown, masks, photos, politics, shortages, social distancing, staycation, testing, vaccine, working

• Countries:  so far (new ones are added regularly) the database has at least 55 different countries

• Artist name:  search by first or last name or by nickname.  Too many to list

• Vendor: only vendors with a direct link to artists are listed:  Etsy, Redbubble, Zazzle 

• Title: the titles are tentative descriptions of the postcard. Therefore, you could use any words to search.

Instructions to search the digital catalog

• To search with a keyword (country, artist, anything…)

• Click on the magnifying glass in the top right corner

• Type any keywords or topics or country….  that you would like

• Make sure for a country not to have spaces after the name

• For common names such as cat.. add a space after the word or you will get a lot of hits

• The first result will be highlighted and you will see how many hits there are

• To go to the next hit, click the up and down arrows in the search window

Sorting the digital catalog

• • Click on Sort on the top left

  • Click on “Pick a field to sort by”

  • Select one or more fields

  • Your digital catalog is sorted!!!

The topics used are:   Animals, coronavirus, earth-World view, essential workers, greetings, health messages, humor, lockdown, masks, photos, politics, shortages, social distancing, staycation, testing, vaccine, working