Searches may be narrowed by entering search terms into one or
more of the fields and/or making a selection from one or both of
the drop-down menus. For example, you could search for postcards
of waterfalls (SUBJECT menu) in Dundas (KEYWORD) or postcards issued
by Valentine & Sons (PUBLISHER menu) between 1905 and 1910
(DATE fields).
If you are searching for a subject as opposed to a name, try the SUBJECT menu first. To facilitate this type of search, a cross-referenced list of Subject Terms is provided below. If you try using the KEYWORD search option you may not retrieve all of the images pertaining to that particular subject. For example, if you type in “bridge” (no quotation marks) you will retrieve all of the postcard images where the word “bridge” or “bridges” appears in the TITLE or IMAGE DESCRIPTION fields. If you type in “bridges” you will get only those images where the word “bridges” appears in these fields.
You may select multiple subjects from the subject list. The resulting search will retrieve images relating to any one of the selected subjects. To search for subjects beginning with more than one letter first click a letter button to get a list of subjects beginning with that letter and select those you desire. Then click another letter button; the resulting list will contain the subjects that you have already selected and those beginning with the new letter. Continue to select (or deselect) subjects until you are happy with the request then click the “Search Database” button.
Searching by Keyword
To search by keyword, you can type in any name, word or phrase but only exact matches will be retrieved. You can also enter a partial name, which is useful if a name is spelled different ways or with different endings. For example, type in “Strongman” to find all the images of Strongman’s Road (also spelled Strongmans and Strongman). Acronymns are written with and without periods, in accordance with past and
current practice: e.g. Y.W.C.A. or YWCA; T.H.&B. or TH&B). If Y.W.C.A. appeared in the TITLE field then YWCA was used in the IMAGE DESCRIPTION to facilitate searches. If you want to be sure of retrieving all related images, try doing two searches, one for Y.W.C.A. and one for YWCA. Do not leave spaces between the letters or periods and letters as all spaces were consistently omitted.
Keyword searches are not case sensitive so it does not matter whether you type words or phrases in upper or lower case letters. The results will be the same.
Searching by Date
How to Use the START and END Fields
You may enter
dates into either or both the START and END boxes.
Entering a date in the first box will produce all the postcards
dating from that date up to the most recent date entered into the
database. Entering a date in the second box will produce all the
postcards dating up to and including that date. Entering the same
date in both boxes will produce only postcards assigned a single
year date of issue (e.g. events and occurrences: try 1913 or 1917).
Entering two different dates will produce any postcards assigned
that exact date range, a narrower range or a single year date within
that range. For example, if you are looking for postcards issued
between 1905 and 1915, you will get all single year dated postcards
from 1905 up to and including 1915 plus all cards assigned date
ranges that fall between these two dates (e.g. 1905 – 1907).
Overlapping date ranges will not be retrieved (e.g. 1910 – 1920).
For a detailed explanation of how the postcards were dated, see
Dating the Postcards. You will have the best success with date
searches if you first read this page. Additional information about
the dating of a specific postcard or photograph used for the postcard
is provided in the IMAGE DESCRIPTION field.
Search Results for Dates Entered into the KEYWORD Field
You
can also enter single dates or decades (e.g. 1930's) into the
KEYWORD field but the results will be completely different as you
will retrieve only those postcard images for which a particular
date or decade is included in the TITLE or IMAGE DESCRIPTION fields.
It might be a date of construction/ demolition of a structure
or a date of opening/ closing of a business. KEYWORD date searches
may produce no results if you enter a date range because an exact
match for the date phrase would have to be found. Try searching
for 1930 and 1930-31 and see what you get. Note that the Search
Results for 1930 will also retrieve postcard images with the
date phrase 1930-31 in the IMAGE DESCRIPTION field.
Searching by Publishing/ Printing Co.
The PUBLISHER/ PRINTER menu lists alphabetically the names of all of the postcard publishing/ printing companies represented in this database. For background on these companies, see History of Postcards in Canada. Selecting a name from this menu alone will retrieve thumbnail images of all of the postcards credited to a particular publisher or printer. Please note that your searches will retrieve any number of images from one up to as many as 150 depending on the company. In addition to searching for a particular company by highlighting a name in the subject menu, you can also try entering one word of a full name in the KEYWORD field (e.g. “Bain” to retrieve all the postcards published by Jack H. Bain) but this method will only be as fast for short names like Bain, Smith, or Gay and will produce unpredictable results with some names like Stanley Mills & Co. If you type in the name “Mills”, you will also get postcards with the word “mills” in the TITLE or IMAGE DESCRIPTION fields.
Grouping Postcard Images Based on the Same Photograph or Rendition
Numerous instances were found where the same photograph was used by a single publisher for more than one postcard series or by two or more different publishers. In fewer instances, the same artist's or architect's rendition (e.g. a drawing or painting) was used by different publishers. Postcards based on the same photograph or rendition are usually distinguishable by the use of b&w versus colour, different printing processes/ colouring / borders/ cropping/ titles, addition of crests, etc. In order for such postcards to be displayed as a group, the photograph or rendition was assigned a number and the phrase [identical photo 1], [identical photo 2], [identical rendition 1] etc. added before the title generated with the thumbnail image.
Subject Terms
To facilitate searching by means of the subject terms provided in the drop-down alphabetical menu, a more detailed list with cross-references to the terms used in the menu is provided below. All terms shown with bold green letters will be found in the SUBJECT menu on the Search page. The following four search terms were entered in singular form for the reasons given: university (historically only one in the Hamilton area: McMaster University); escarpment (only one: the Niagara Escarpment); harbour (only one: Hamilton Harbour); and lake (only one: Lake Ontario)
NOTE: Hamilton Harbour is still sometimes called Burlington Bay, the name given to this body of water by Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1792. The name was, however, officially changed to Hamilton Harbour in 1919. To retrieve images of Burlington Bay / Hamilton Harbour, use the latter name for KEYWORD searches or harbour for searches using the SUBJECT menu.
pubs – see bars; see also restaurants; hotels and motels
Q
quarries
R
race tracks – see sports and facilities
railway related (e.g. trains; tracks; bridges; tunnels; stations) – see also incline
railways; street railways; electric
railways; transportation terminals
registry offices
reservoirs
residences (e.g. nurses’ /students’ /seniors’ residences; orphanages)
– for private residences see houses; mansions and estates
residential buildings – see specific types (e.g.: houses; mansions
and estates; residences)
restaurants (includes cafes and banquet halls) – see also bars
retail businesses/ stores – see businesses; stores
roads – see streets and roads; see also toll roads and gates
S
scenic drives - see streets and roads
schools - see also university; colleges
ships – see boats and ships
shops – see stores
sports and facilities (e.g. race tracks; tennis courts; golf courses; swimming pools; gymnasiums) – see also yacht clubs
statues – see also monuments
stores (retail outlets) – see also department stores
streams
street railways (includes streetcars; companies; terminals, etc.)
