The Fine Art of Family Magazine

Long before text message and Twitter dared us to make the most of 140 characters there was another restricted writing space that tested our ability to be brief: the postcard. While speedier communication dominates most of our lives, you can’t wrap a tweet or text in tissue paper and preserve it for future generations as Russ Hardin has with his postcard collection.

In fact, the owner and creative director of christensenHARDIN, a New York-based brand development agency, is looking forward to one day passing on part of his family’s extensive postcard collection to his three kids. He’s also excited to share with them (and his special inner circle) his deeply rooted appreciation for the lost art of penning and mailing a thoughtful note, which was ultimately the driving force behind his self-dubbed “postcard project.” Here, he tells us more about his newest pastime that was inspired by his collection.

Inspiration

“My parents loved to travel and often took me and my older sister with them. I think traveling gave them a tremendous sense of freedom and self-worth. Postcards were always an omnipresent part of any trip. I can vividly recall sitting at a roadside diner with my father eating a coconut cream pie while my mother penned 10 or 15 at a time. Or eating a brioche under the Eiffel Tower as my sister snapped away with her Brownie, my father smoked, and my mother wrote.”

First Piece

“Almost 10 years after my parents both died, I was going through a box of their postcards, some written on and some untouched. It unlocked a sort of secret world as I began to read my great-grandmother’s messages to my mother who was 7 or 8 and summering with relatives in Michigan.

Beyond the often humorous and illuminating moments of rummaging through these old postcards (like not remembering ever having visited a place called ‘Weeki Wachee: Spring Of The Live Mermaids‘) I would find beautifully written and postmarked parcels of them with bits of news or a moment in someone’s day while on vacation.”

Most Valuable Piece

“The ones I most enjoy are the handwritten postcards between family members that date back almost a 100 years. My grandmother died giving birth to my mother so the messages between she and her grandmother, who raised her, are quite poignant and sweet. Also, the messages sent from the road by my maternal grandfather, who, after his wife’s death, had to leave for a while. Those postcards to my mother and aunt are stories unto themselves.”

Most Rewarding Part

“Writing has always been a big part of who I am. I started my collection with several hundred but have been mailing them off to people. It’s wonderful to get something other than a bill or catalog in the mail. The ritual of writing a postcard involves creating a concise story or message, addressing it, applying a stamp and knowing it won’t arrive for several days. That lack of immediacy is what I found really appealing.  I feel so terrific when I send these little paper missives through the mail. In those messages are carried the moments and memories of my parents, now long gone.”

Currently Exploring

“I’ve mailed out about 15 different postcard memories to 20 people over the last six months. However, unlike the handwritten variety of old, mine are done in Quark [publishing software] on a computer, which gives me more “space” to wax romantically about a place, a person, or event that I recall. So it’s a mix of old and new.

I still have a lot of postcards left. I may widen my net and add more people or go out in a blaze of glory and send the original 20 recipients 50 or 100 unwritten postcards, for them to write and send out themselves. It’s something that keeps evolving.”

Advice

“A postcard forces you to choose your words carefully, as does a letter. The process of writing makes us think, consider and reconsider each word carefully. I’m sure in the next century we won’t find ‘troves’ of old e-mails tied in ribbon and carefully placed in the errant shoe box. No ‘undiscovered’ e-mails professing deep feelings and fidelity from today’s celebrity or historic figure to the person they love. That part of our human heritage may be lost forever.

I think what makes my little postcard project work is that my memories and recollections trigger something in each person, which is why I really wanted to do it. If it makes them recall and retell a story or pick up the phone and call an old friend. How wonderful is that?”

[Photography is courtesy of Russ Hardin]

Published on December 2, 2009

Tags: Celebrating, Family, Heirlooms, Piece By Piece