Plowman Family Postcard Collection

About the Collection

boy & girl around a title of St Patrick's Day and shamrock
St. Patrick’s Day postcard addressed to Olive Plowman | Plowman Family Postcard Collection

The Plowman Family Postcard Collection is a collection of postcards received and collected by members of the Plowman family between 1902 and 1932. The Plowman family was an English immigrant family living in Toronto, Ontario.

The fonds consists of 312 postcards that have been arranged chronologically. Postcards in the collection include greeting cards for birthdays, Easter, Christmas, New Years, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, the 4th of July, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Thanksgiving. The collection includes popular novelty cards such as photographic portrait postcards or postcards decorated with glitter. Many of the postcards depict buildings and streetscapes, as well as various types of advertisements.

The Plowman Family Postcard Collection has been catalogued in the University of Toronto Library Catalogue.


Finding Guide

The fonds ranges in date between 1902 and 1932. The fonds is 14 cm in extent and has been arranged into 7 series:

  1. Postcards addressed to Olive Plowman (178 postcards; 1903-1932, predominant, 1908-1919)
  2. Postcards addressed to Charles Plowman (15 postcards)
  3. Postcards addressed to Samual Plowman (9 postcards)
  4. Postcards addressed to Ellen Plowman (53 postcards)
  5. Postcards addressed to Charles and Ellen Plowman (21 postcards)
  6. Postcards addressed to the Plowman family (3 postcards)
  7. Unaddressed postcards (33 postcards)

There is no finding guide available at this time. More detailed descriptions are available in the Special Collections Reading Room through the in-house database.