Postcard History - Collecting Postcards - Souvenir Map Cards - Map Postcards for Sale

The Map Postcard - A Holiday Souvenir

Welcome to MapPostcards.com, the one-stop website for old UK, Europe and rest of the world holiday souvenir postcards with miniature maps. Find all kinds of stylised local maps for popular holiday destinations in the counties of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, aswell as many other countries beyond. We try to provide you with links, tips and resources plus ads for collectable cards.

One of the more popular postcard-subjects collected is that of those showing a map. The maps can be historical, informative, local, imaginative, pictorial; they can be monochrome or vibrant colour; they can be small scale or large scale; they can be local or foreign; they can be new or old, used or unused; they can be individual but linked items in a series or one-offs. The options and combinations are numerous, to say the least.

Many of the postcard maps are printed to be sold in tourist locations to give the eventual recipient some idea of the sender's location and surroundings. These might typically display a general outline of location (town, county or seacoast) inside which would be small images of places of interest to a visitor. The illustrations can be intended to be humorous or informative, but always designed to raise a smile or a positive response to the location depicted.

The number of ways in which maps can be, and have been, incorporated into the design on a postcard is almost infinite. The following examples are just a few of those to be found at auctions, fairs or in the shops.

* The depicted map might show locations of themed buildings or structures, for example lighthouses, or stone crosses found in a particular area.
* Informative postards can include such ones as London Underground lines and stations, or railways of a region.
* The front of the card can be in sections - the larger part showing a map and several smaller sections showing location scenes whcih can be either photographic or drawn.
* Town and city maps, useful for tourists, which indicate major roads and locations of places of interest.
* Mountainous landscapes giving heights of the peaks.
* Photographic or diagrammatic view of the area showing locational references.
* An illustrated walkers route, eg., the Pennine Way or the Cotswold Way
* Humour, for example, an imaginative view from space pinpointing a specific location, on earth, in an apparent void; or a map with placenames where the names have been changed to sound like, or look like, words with a suggestive or comic meaning.
* Maps featuring illustrations of impressive and important man-made or natural features, and their location, for example the Suez Canal or the Himalayas
* Map of battle formations and troop deployment, for example, a battle from World War One.
* Commemorative maps of past conflicts, eg., the 'Falklands War 25 years'
* Montage illustrations in which the map is only a small part, eg., one promoting the Cunard Line, Liverpool to Boston route, featuring a liner with small inset of the Atlantic bordered by the seaboards of America and Europe.
* Representations of OS maps.
* Maps for advertising purposes showing the location of, typically, a hotel (usually one of a chain of hotels)
* Promotional maps showing the location of a forthcoming event or festival.
* Promotional purposes showing a world map with the shipping routes of passenger liners and an inset picture of a liner.
* Pictorial, historical maps showing the world as it was envisioned hundreds of years ago.

Find hundreds of collectable map postcards from all around the United Kingdom, including counties in England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland, plus Europe and beyond with MapPostcards.com