I was super excited to get a card from Fiji. It is one of the rare countries in Postcrossing with only 16 members.  Suva is the capital city of Fuji and is home to 100 000 people. It is an important commercial and port city. It is also the cultural and entertainment capital of Oceania as it hosts many regional, national, and local events. Suva has a very developed and advanced entertainment and event infrastructure and host a busy colander of events every year.  This card shows The Lovers  by Marc Chagall (1887-1985). It is an oil painting on canvas created in 1913-14. It is part of the permenent collection at The Metropolitan Musuem of Art in New York City. 

Konstanz, or Constance, is located at the western end of Upper Lake Constance in southern Germany.  Konstanz is the birthplace of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917), the constructor of the Zeppelin airships.  Zeppelin began developing the idea of a rigid airship in 1874 and developed it in detail by 1893. It was patented in Germany in 1895 and the United States in 1899. Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG (DELAG), the world's first airline in revenue service. By 1914, DELAG carried over 10 000 fare-paying customers on over 1500 flights. They were put into service during World War I as bombers and as scouts. Zeppelins are credited with killing over 500 Britain citizens on numerous bombing raids over the United Kingdom.  Restrictions were placed on Zeppelin construction as a part of the Treaty of Versailles and not lifted until 1926. Larger Zeppelin's were designed and constructed. During the 1930s, LZ 129 Hindenburg operated...

This is a great reproduction of a tourist card probably from the 1940s or 50s. The sender is a life long resident of the east coast and is from Eatontown, a borough of Monmouth County. However he says his grandmother is from Red Deer, Alberta, about a 4.5 hour drive from where I am, and her brother was a Member of Parliament for a riding on Vancouver Island! Small world. 

Jeffrey's Hook Light, aka Little Red Lighthouse is located in Fort Washington Park along the Hudson River in Manhattan, under the George Washington Bridge. It was constructed in 1921. It is a New York City Landmark, and a National Register of Historic Places. It was a working lighthouse from 1920 to 1947, when it was deactivated. It was relit in 2002. 

The sender lives in uptown Manhattan which has a rich and cultured history. Harlem is found in uptown Manhattan and was the centre of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in uptown Manhattan is considered the birthplace of the modern gay-rights movement in 1969. Upper Manhattan. Manhattan is home to almost 1.7 million people and is the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City, with almost 29 000 people per  km 2  .  The sender says their house supports the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (Manhattan is home to the New York Rangers), the San Antonio Spurs (Manhattan is home to the New York Knicks), and New York City Football Club (who will be playing at Etihad Park in Queens, New York, when the stadium is finished). 

A cool info card about the United States. I can't imagine living in a place like New York City. I get annoyed by the traffic of the nearby Trans-Canada Highway at times. On television and movies they portray New York City with traffic noise and constant sirens. I guess if you live there you get used to the smells and noises.  New York City was never a bucket list city for me until about five years ago. When I always thought of New York City, I saw how they portrayed it in television and movies from the 1970s and 1980s - lawless, dirty, noisy, drug infested. It has changed quite a bit since then and it is a city I would like to spend some time exploring.

This photograph was taken by Alejandro Merizalde. The building is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The Guggenheim is an art museum and hosts a permanent collection of impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art. The museum itself was design by Frank Lloyd Wright and took 15 years to design and build. It was completed at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City in 1959. Adult admission is USD$30, while seniors and students can get in for USD$19, and United States military personal are charged USD$25.  On Monday and Saturday between 1600 and 1730, you can pay what you wish for admission. 

The sender is from  Mülheim an der Ruhr, a city on the Ruhr with about 170 000 people.  The card comes from New York City and is a photo of the clock of the Grand Central Terminal. The Grand Central Terminal is a commuter train terminal locked in Midtown Manhattan. It is the southern terminus of the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven Lines, which serve the northern parts of the New York Metropolitan Area. There is also a connection to the Long Island Rail Road. It is the third busiest train station in North America, behind New York Penn Station and Toronto Union Station.  It is a U. S. National Historic Landmark. There are many works of art incorporated in and around the station. It is the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions, with 21.6 million visitors in 2018. This does not include train and subway passengers. Its been featured in many films and television programmes. In the building is a library, event Hall, tennis club, control centre, and of...

The sender bought this card from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The art on the front was created by Irma Boom (1960-), a Dutch graphic artists who specializes in bookmaking. She has created over 300 books and is well reputed for her artistic autonomy within her field. 

A great card from the Maps of the Ancient World collection. This is a map by an unknown map maker of the Promised Land Canaan. It was made in the 17th century.  Bowling Green is located south central Kentucky. It has a population of 73 000. The source of the town's name is somewhat controversial. One source says the city was named for the first county commissioners' meeting in 1798, which named the town "Bolin Green" after the Bowling Green in New York City, where patriots had pulled down a statue of King George III and melted it down to use the lead to make musket balls during the American War of Independence. Another says the name came from Bowling Green, Virginia, where early migrants came from.  During the American Civil War, Bowling Green was the provisional capital city of Confederate Kentucky.  Today is the home of many manufacturers, including General Motors, Spalding, and Fruit of the Loom. All Chevrolet Corvettes have been built in Bowling Green since 1981. ...

Happy Christmas. This card is coming from Mendham, New Jersey. Mendham was established in 1749, and incorporated as a town in 1798. Today there are about 6000 people who call the town home. The town is 48 km west of New York City. Near Mendham is Patriots' Path, a multi-use train system with 89 km (main trail) and 56 km (spur trails). The trail is open to cyclists, hikers, and horseback riders. There are also certain parts where people can also bike on paved trails, cross-country ski, and handicap accessible trails. 

The sender is a New Yorker and an actor/director (http://www.lawrencelesher.com/)  . He sent me this card while he was directing a show at Florida Southern University. Florida Southern University is home to the largest single collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world. In the photo is Lucius Pond Ordway Arts Building, built in 1950 and designed by Wright. 

The sender is from New York, but sent a card she bought when visiting the Vatican. It is a commemorative card celebrating the 500 anniversary of the Swiss Guard. They are an armed force and honour guard unit maintained by the Holy See that protects the pop and the Apostolic Palace within the territory of Vatican City. Pope Julius II established the unit in 1506 and is one of the oldest military unites in continuous operation. It is sometimes called the world's smallest army.  The Swiss Guard stand out in their Renaissance-era dress uniform - a tunic striped in red, dark blue, and yellow; high plumed helmet; and the traditional weapon, the halberd. The Guard also dress in functional attire with modern firearms.  The Swiss Guard is considered elite and is highly selective in its recruitment. Candidates must be unmarried Swiss Catholic males between the ages of 19 and 30, and must be a minimum of 1.74 meters talls. Candidates must also have completed basic training with the Swiss...

Another great photograph, this time of Jefferson Market Court in Manhattan. It was taken by Berenice Abbott (1898-1991). Abbott was an American photographer known for her portraits of cultural figures of the interwar period (1918-1939), New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and science interpretation of between the 1940s-1960s. This particular photograph is a part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Jefferson Market Court still stands today, but is now known as the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York City Library. It is found at 425 Avenue of the Americas in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The building faced demolition in 1958, but public outcry led to its reuse as a branch of the library. It is found on the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission's Greenwich Village History District, the National Reigister of Historic Places (1972), and the National Historic Landmark list (1977). The building is de...

This is a photo from The Cloisters (Met Cloisters), which is a museum in Washington Heights, in Upper Manhattan, in New York City. The museum specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. The Metropolitan Museum of Art governs The Cloisters.  The sender is from Hopatcong, in northern New Jersey. Hopatcong is a borough located on the shores of Lake Hopatcong of almost 15 000 people, but the sender says the population swells to 65 000 people over the summer. Needless to say, tourism is a big part of Hopatcong's economy. 

Floral Park is a village of 16 000 people and is found on the northern and western borders of New York City (Borough of Queens). It was founded in 1874 and was once called Plainfield and then East Hinsdale. It officially became Floral Park when the post office took the name. 

A great card from the Wes Anderson postcard book, Accidentally . I just got this book myself for Christmas (shop local!).  New York, of course, is the 'city that never sleeps.' It is the most populous city in the United States with 8.84 million people, and over 23.5 million in its metropolitan area. There are 3.2 million residents who were born outside of the United States, which makes it the city with the largest foreign born people of any city in the world. There are over 800 languages spoken in New York City.  New York was named in honour of the Duke of York, who would later became King James II. The area was formerly known as New Amsterdam as it was controlled by the Dutch. New York City is divided up into five boroughs - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. This set up reminds me of a country that is divided up into provinces or states. There are certain responsibilities that the City of New York handles, while the boroughs are responsible for m...

The sender is a huge pop art fan and their card shows it. This is Finger Pointing (1973) by Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein was an American pop artist and was one of the leading figures in the new art movement in the 1960s. He defined pop art through parody.  His most expensive work is Masterpiece  and is was sold for $165 million (USD) in 2017. Masterpience was created in 1962 and is a parady of a comic strip. The female character in the work says, "Why, Brad darling, this painting is a MASTERPIECE! My, soon you'll have all of NEW YORK clamoring for your work!" Steven A. Cohen purchased the work and is in his private collection. The previous owner, Agnes Gund, sold it and the proceeds of the sale were used to start a fund for criminal justice reform called the Art for Justice fund.  Lichtenstein died of pneumonia in 1997 in New York City.

New York City is the largest city by population in the United States with 8.8 million people. It also holds the most densely populated city with 11 313.81/square km. It is also the centre of the Northeast Megalopolis with 52.3 million people.  New York has one of the largest natural harbours in the world. There are five boroughs that make up New York City - Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island.  Tourism is a major part of the economy of New York with 66.6 million tourists visiting in 2019. Times Square is one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections and the heart of the Broadway Theatre District. Three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions are in New York City. 

The sender must have visited New York City and picked up this card from Times Square. Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighbourhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. It is brightly lit all the time by billboards and advertisements as well as businesses that are open 24 hours a day. The Broadway Theatre District is also located here. It draws about 50 million tourists a year.  It was once known as Longacre Square, but was renamed in 1904 when the New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building, now One Times Square. This is the site of the famous New Year's Eve ball drop which attracts a million people a year.  Between the 1960s and early 1990s, Times Square was not a great place to be. High crime as well as go-go bars, sex shops, peep shows, and adult theatres were infamous symbols of the city's decline.  Today it is es...