Open Saturday 9-5
Open Sunday 10-3
Tickets at the door.
Yes, there will be postcards! Check out the Exhibitors’ gallery on the Show website to see a few of the grand cards that John Cheramy is bringing, including Early BC Fire Fighters and Sports Teams.
Sandra Ratch of “Renaissance Woman” , whose postcard article series I mentioned here recently, now has a blog dedicated to her family postcard collection, “Dear Jack”.
Renaissance Woman, Sandi Ratch, has been writing a series on her family postcards.
Postcards #1 – Banff [meaning Banff in Scotland] was the first. (This led to her discovering that there is a “little known” [!] town also called Banff in Canada. Gosh, I thought our Banff was world famous.)
Very interesting series of postcard articles – for me especially as it turned out that many were from or related to Canada. And along the way, Renaissance Woman has solved a number of little family puzzles. Always good to see!
It’s a New Year and the Vancouver Postcard Club‘s first meeting of 2014 will be at Hastings Community Centre, 11:30 am to 2 pm.
Mike Hocevar will present rare and fascinating Japanese –Canadian ephemera of British Columbia, 1890s to 1940s.
The meeting begins at 11:30 am so that members may view (and sometimes purchase) cards from other members’ collections. Usually there is a great variety of cards and this is a good time to get to know people and ask questions too. All interested in postcards are welcome to attend.
An additional late note: The meeting tomorrow will be in the Community Hall Room at the Hastings Community Center. Walk through the parking lot to South end of building, past the big blue garbage dumpsters; the entrance doors will be near the sign on wall “Community Hall”.
As I now know, this is an example of a ‘Dear Doctor’ advertising postcard, sent by Abbott Laboratories in the 1950s and 60s to doctors and other health professionals. These must have been ‘attention getters’ for sure. You can see that at one time someone had this particular one pinned up, perhaps as ‘art’.
I think my mother collected this card at one of the many stamp/collectable shows or flea markets we’ve attended. She’d have been interested in the image of Thailand. When I saw it, I was more interested in the address it was sent to – Esperanza, BC!
Esperanza and Esperanza Inlet are on the north side of Hecate Channel, south of Zeballos on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Nootka Land District, British Columbia, Canada. Apparently the British Captain Cook named ‘Hope Bay’ in 1778, which was changed by the Spaniard Captain Malaspina to ‘Espérance’ in 1791. BC Geographical Names database (citing John T. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: Their Origin and History, published for the Geographic Board of Canada, Ottawa, 1909, as reprinted 1971).
According to the official BC Geographical Names database, the name of the settlement was adopted in 1946, changed to Esperanza Landing in 1959, then changed back in 1983. Originally a nearby cannery post office (1926) was called Ceepeecee from the initials of the Canadian Packing Company; the name Esperanza was adopted for the settlement post office in 1960 but it closed in 1974. The hospital there operated from the 1930s till 1974 when it closed.
See The Dear Doctor Postcard Collector Page by Tom Fortunato for more about these cards. And David C. Lai has written a book about them, Pentothal Postcards (Mark Batty Publisher, 2005). See the link at the bottom of The Dear Doctor page linked above.
Front of a ‘Dear Doctor’ postcard, titled on the back, ‘Dhonburi, Thailand, scenery of Pagoda of Dawn’ and mailed to Dr. Herman McLean, Superintendant, Esperanza General Hospital, Esperanza, B.C. Canada.
The back of the same ‘Dear Doctor’ postcard. Unfortunately someone removed the no doubt colourful stamp, and along with it, most of the postmark.
This video,Esperanza Vancouver Island 2009, published by thewestcoaster on YouTube, shows the modern Esperanza and its beautiful location along with historical photographs. For more about the Esperanza hospital and Esperanza today, see these links: BC Christian News and Esperanza Ministries.
