The Last Best West
The Last Best West: Glimpses of the Prairie Provinces from the Golden Age of Postcards
Curator: Ken Tingley
1 November 2016 – 31 January 2017
Curated by Edmonton's first historian laureate, this exhibition of prairie postcards documents the settlement and urbanization of the Canadian Northwest. It is a visually rich display of first houses, farms, and family groups, as well as important events, disasters, and buildings. In the later decades of the nineteenth century, the postcard was at its zenith of popularity as a low-cost and efficient means of transmitting brief messages. By the first decade of the twentieth century, many cities, towns, and villages were home to photographers who produced a mass of fascinating and informative images for picture postcards. Link to the extensive collection of postcards digitized through the Peel's Prairie Provinces database here. The original catalogue for this re-mounted exhibition (2011) may be purchased through University of Alberta Press or Indigo or in person in the Peel library for $25 (cash only, no dealers).
Link to a video with Curator Ken Tingley about The Last Best West exhibition and Prairie Postcard Collection (runs 13:44).
The Peel library has offered a fascinating array of exhibitions since moving to the basement of Rutherford South in 1984. Numerous awards demonstrate that the exhibition catalogues published by Bruce Peel Special Collections are some of the best in North America. They are distributed internationally by University of Alberta Press and continue to be actively used by local researchers. For information on past exhibitions and the availability of exhibition catalogues, see Previous in-house Exhibitions.
