Visit our digital virtual museum, featuring Northern Ontario postcards from the Nipissing District and the Parry Sound District, including Temagami, Bonfield, Callander and Corbeil, Commanda, the Ferguson Highway (Highway 11), Lavigne and Verner, Marten River, Mattawa, Monetville and Noëlville, North Bay, Powassan and Trout Creek, Sundridge, Alderdale, Nipissing Village, Trout Lake, Restoule, South River, Tilden Lake, Dokis, Rutherglen, Trout Mills, Sturgeon Falls and other areas of interest. Be sure to read the story of Antoine’s Moose-Yard.

We also maintain a postcard blog for your enjoyment, and we offer the world’s largest selection of postcard books.

Learn more about collecting vintage postcards on the reference, Northern Ontario Postcard Photographers, and Canadiana pages. Also see our Guide to Old Postcards and Antique Postcards and our Postcard Price Guides page.

I was first afflicted with “postcard-itis” at the age of six. My love of roadside America — or roadside Americana, as it’s more properly known — eventually culminated in a master’s degree in historic preservation; I am a certified architectural historian, published author and photographer. Vintage postcards offer unique glimpses into the past; real photo postcards (RPPCs) are often used in home renovation and Main St. restoration projects as a unique means to document what was. I hope to look this contented in my dotage.

There was a large detour on the way to postcard nirvana. Below is a representation of me in my “Betty Crocker” period, which lasted about 20 years. Fortunately, I got over it.

I gratefully acknowledge the education received from such stellar mentors and friends as historic preservationist Lachlan F. Blair, FAICP (1919-2001); the inimitable architectural historian Walter L. Creese (1919-2002); multi-talented attorney, legislator, historian and author Harry M. Caudill (1922-1990), whose classic work Night Comes to the Cumberlands rewrote Southern Appalachia history; folklorist William H. Jansen; Professor Emeritus Herbert N. Drennon; beloved teacher Brenda H. Glenn; and Clarence Eugene Corum (1918-2004). Many thanks also to the Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife Festival and the Museum of Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) for providing internship opportunities.