Héjjas Pál - Horváth M. Ferenc: Régi képeslapok - Old postcards - Alte Ansichtskarten, 1896 - 1950 - Váci Történelmi Tár 2. (Vác, 2001)

Város a Duna partján - történeti áttekintés

happened in the town's appearance in the last few decades. Comparing the old with the new, we can answer the inevitable questions, whether these changes were favourable, whether they were they useful for the town, or were those decades all the worse for it? Sometimes we perceive the town as wondrously beautiful, sometimes a little neglected, and this is not imputable to the good vision, skilful hands of the one time photographer or drawing artist, neither to optical illusions. Sometimes we can regretfully state that not only the period but together with it several streets, buildings, gardens, restaurant terraces and the atmosphere emanating from them have long gone. Examining this book of postcards it seems as if we had an imaginary walk along the streets and squares of the town. The buildings themselves haven't changed much at all, rather their surroundings. However the way of life inside the town walls is impossible to grasp. On the surface though we can perceive the atmosphere of the half a century old "good ol' times" which evolved after 1867: the poignancy of the 1000 year old Hungary, the uplifting feeling of the millennium in Hungary, the huge factories representing economic power, the signboards suggesting safety and trustworthiness, the villas signifying individual prosperity and wealth, the landlord radiating contentment in front of his café. It is not mere chance that the first postcards were published at the time of the millennium everywhere in the country and Hungary was presented as a prosperous and wealthy land. However, this age contained many contradictions, when they talked about "accelerating time" which many people were consumed by in their every day struggles. Competitiveness reigning in economy, quick enrichment versus bankruptcy, the failure bearing age can be traced on the changing signboards. Feats of engineering broke into families' life. The first telephone wire was laid in 1885, engines appeared in many areas of life, they listened to the gramophone and the radio, and used more and more automobiles. They did not have any knowledge of where all these would lead, as we don't know anything precise about the future. Perhaps, that's why they felt it important to grasp the momentary vision of future in postcards as they daily experienced the rocketing material and technical development. The photos hardly bear any traces of the rigid every day life, the near ing World War, and the shock of Trianon following that. Only the idyllic snapshots about the war invalids, the factories converted into war hospitals and the villas converted to orphanages signify that something is happening in the world and in the country. From these photos we cannot find out that the town was considered one of the dustiest settlements of the country. Stinking sewage water flowed on many streets, there was one hospital here with 22 beds, and most of the people lived in unhealthy, damp dwellings. The town has hardly overcome the ravages of the phylloxera and hundreds of people deprived of their old livelihood were forced to lead a new way of life, commuting to work to local and regional factories. The photos do not disclose urbanisation and characteristic features of modernisation either. They do not reveal that they started the development of the sewage system at the start of the 20 century, they lit up the first electric light in 1905, and completed the drinking water pipe system by the end of the 1920's. In the photos taken in the first decade of the 20 century often appear faces staring into the lens, wearing sometimes shabby, at other times fashionable clothing, ladies strolling along the promenade wearing fancy dresses and hats, hackney carriage drivers, restaurant landlords with aprons, gentlemen wearing gamps, top-hats and tail-coats, oarsmen in striped singlets flexing their muscles, students wearing uniforms. All of them are representative figures of a well-balanced burghers' world. They symbolically suggest the way of life and showed the kind of people who lived in the town. Between the two World Wars the photos continue to show an organized world, although - and that might be the mark of the age too - there are not as many coloured photos. Hardly any people can be noticed in the streets and squares. One of the reasons might be that the view of the street photographer wasn't any more a sensation, it became common, belonged to every day life. The issue date of the postal cards can be exactly defined - 1 October, 1869 - not so the date of the picture postcards. A controversy is held on their first issue date among specialists and professionals but we cannot expect a uniform attitude in the near future. It can be stated that already at the beginning of the 1870's they used cards that had a side decorated with a picture and the other side was kept for writing. The first postcard issuers were Germans, Austrians, French and English. In the 1880's more and more numerous and more and more versatile greeting cards appeared in these countries. There were mostly townscapes and landscapes. In the 1890's cards with Hungarian landscapes appeared as well, firstly by foreign, especially by Austrian and German publishers. National publication of postcards commenced on the occasion of the millennial exhibition in 1896, with a series containing 32 photos of historical events, town- and landscapes. Following 1896 a surprising change occurred in the Hungarian postcard publication. In two or three years picture postcards were made of all the significant settlements and late about the smallest villages too. At the turn of the century an irreproducible era started in the history of postcards. Exhibitions followed on each other's heels, many people started to collect postcards, and huge collections came into being. Postcard publishing was characterised by good taste, wittiness and beautiful execution. Until 1904 one side of the cards was completely taken by the address, there was no place left for any other writing. Therefore they could only write the greetings on the picture side, thus disfiguring the picture. They tried to solve this situation when in 1904 an international decision was brought on dividing the address side into two so messages could be written on the empty half. According to national practice picture postcard publication in Vác commenced in the last few years of the 1890's and at the turn of the century several publishers competed with each other. Not only local but also national publishers issued their postcards in Vác. Several artists dealt with picture postcard publishing based on photos and art