Arts & Culture

Memorie dell'Italia: vintage postcards of Italian landmarks are on display until the end of August on the 2nd floor of the Toronto Reference Library in the Picture Collection. The exquisite displays created by Picture Collection staff always reward careful looking. There are about 50,000 postcards in the Postcard Collection, mostly from the late 19th and early 20th century. Memoire dell'Italia highlights cards printed in the 1950s.

Here's a great booklet of pictures of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. No, that's not the Grand Canal — that's St. Mark's Square under flood water. Here Florence's Duomo peaks out from behind some faux greenery.

I love everything about this depiction of the Roman Forum– the antique look of the 50s colour and the clean, modern san-serif typeface.

I'm also fond of this painting of Bologna's famous Two Towers.

I'll be featuring other treasures from the Postcard Collection over the coming year.

The postcards can only be viewed in the library. When you visit the Toronto Reference Library, ask the staff at the 2nd floor Picture/Video desk about the rest of the Picture Collection. They have over a million other printed images that can be borrowed.