Behind the Scenes... Early Holiday Cards

The expression and exchange of warm wishes in the form of holiday greeting cards is a tradition dating back nearly two centuries. This holiday season, the Museum invites you behind the scenes to look at some special cards from its collection.

Did you know that a few of the images from some of the first Canadian-made greeting cards found their way onto pottery? In this short video, Bianca Gendreau, Manager, Contemporary Canada and the World, highlights the early history of greeting cards. She shares examples of some of the oldest cards in the Museum’s collection, and reveals how winter scenes from a Montréal company inspired a line of Scottish pottery.

Bianca Gendreau, Manager, Contemporary Canada and the World

A little bit about Bianca!

Bianca Gendreau supervises the curators whose research and collection-development activities relate to the events, ideas and experiences that have shaped Canada since 1867.

Bianca’s own research and interests allow her to explore practices related to written communication, and the notions of sociability and ritual surrounding the act of writing, while also examining the material culture that expresses Canada’s contemporary reality.