Why is collecting Indonesian postcards so interesting ?

Having been a former Dutch colony, Dutch East Indies  for centuries Indonesian independence was declared on 17th augustus 1945 and recognized on 27th December 1949. Indonesia exists of more than 18.000 islands and has got a huge variety of peoples and cultures. Besides that since the first postcards were published in the Dutch East Indies in the 1890s there have been a lot of publishers with very many beautiful postcards showing villages/towns, architecture, daily life, cultures (Dance, Music, Applied Arts, Habits), religions (Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity), transportation (Boat, Bullock Cart, Horse Carriage, Sedan Chair, Train, Car, Plane) and its beautiful nature. Because of the many publishers there is a large variety in kinds of postcards (printing techniques, style, used colours, kind of paper) and among them were excellent photographers.

People wanted to send: a message to the homeland, the Netherlands, for example that they had made their long trip by boat to the Dutch East Indies safely (in the early 1900 there was no commercial telephone and no Internet), just a greeting or between the islands in the archipelago and collectors of global associations already swapped postcards by sending them to each other.

According to the last estimation there are 30.000 different Dutch East Indies postcards.

A good standard work about postcards of the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia is the book: INDONESIA 500 Early Postcards by Leo Haks and Steven Wachlin published in 2004. I also delivered my contribution to that book.