About the Postcards

The postcards on this site were written by Henry Griffin and Pam Wintle between 1981 and 1984 during their time in Brussels, Belgium. The addressees of the postcards are Henry's parents, brother and sister-in-law, nephew, and aunt and uncle. As a collection, the postcards reveal a timeline of Henry's move to Brussels at age 29, his work and travels around Western Europe, his girlfriend Pam's move to Brussels, their marriage, and their newlywed life together. The postcards themselves depict significant monuments around Europe and include postage stamps and ink stamps from the early 1980s.

While this is largely a project of personal and family interest, this collection represents the importance of correspondence in archives and how it can expose connections and narratives. The site is also an example of a way correspondence can be described to be accessible to researchers. For this collection, date, image, and geographic location are specific points of access. In order to facilitate this, the postcards are organized by date, browsable by image, and the geographic location is available in the metadata record as well as on the map of postcards. 

Pam Wintle (left) and Henry Griffin (right) in Brussels, Belgium, circa 1982.

Alice Griffin, Henry Griffin and Pam Wintle's daughter, in front of their Brussels apartment at 6 Square de Biarritz in October 2015.