www.thiscityknows.com /postcards-from-19th-century-illustrators-depicting-the-future/

Postcards from 19th-century illustrators depicting the future

About the Author: Stefan A. This City Knows Management 4-5 minutes 9/16/2021

September 16, 2021 Comments Off on Postcards from 19th-century illustrators depicting the future Views: 201 Nostalgia, Postcards

A group of French illustrators took the task in 1899 to imagine what France would look like in the year 2000. Led by artist Jean-Marc Côté, the group produced a series of pictures known as “France in the Year 2000” or “En L’An 2000” (In the Year 2000).

The first batch of futuristic illustrations was released in 1899, and three more followed – in 1900, 1901, and 1910. Initially, the artsy work appeared in the form of cigarette box inserts, later as postcards.

The pictures reveal fantastic images of flying firemen, policemen, or tennis players. Automation is also commonly represented. People will clean their household with a machine, and women will apply makeup with a press of a button. Some of the images are eerie and bizarre. From hunting seagulls instead of fishes to diving on the back of a giant seahorse, the illustrators often demonstrated imagination rather than accuracy.

This collection of postcards functions as a visual time capsule of the day. Gender roles and fashion are intact and accurately represent the society of the early 1900s. Much of the machinery represented operates with common mechanical features of the early 20th-century, such as the levers, pulleys, and propellers. All of it indicates a limited vision of the future the artists had, anyways, it’s worth taking a look.

French postcard depicting the future. The future of police aviation.
The future of police aviation. Winged policeman is signaling an aero-cab above Paris to stop.
French postcards depicting the future. The future of traffic.
Postcard depicting the actual aero cab station where people take off.
French illustrations depicting the future. This is the future of post services. Via air.
The future of posting services is not seagulls. It’s flying postmen.
French postcards imagining the world in 2000. This is how fire services respond.
Fire services responding. It would have been creepy if the illustrators depicted a scene with the Notre Dame burning.
French postcards depicting the future of the world. Underwater whale bus.
Underwater transportation with the help of whales. This is the whale bus.
French postcards depicting the world in the year 2000. Evolution of tennis.
The evolution of tennis. We still haven’t seen this at the Olympics.
The tour every tourist wants. “Flying over the Louvre” postcard gives a glimpse of Paris at the turn of the century.
Farming chicken reinvented. According to the postcard, this machine “intensifies breeding.”
The dream of every household. Scrubbing the floor goes electric.
Farming is done remotely. A hard day’s work in the fields is a thing of the past.
This postcard is called “A race in the Pacific”. A surreal new sport you can attend to if you have proper diving equipment.
In a resource-depleted ocean, we’ll hunt for the seagulls. The new delicacy in your nearby seafood restaurant.
Press the button for eyelashes extension. “Madame at her Toilette” postcard shows a lady who’s taken care of her hair and makeup by machine.
As every good conspiracy theorist will tell you, “At School” is a postcard that inspired Pink Floyd to write their greatest hit “Another brick in the wall.”
Can you roller skate with those clothes? “Moving using Rollers” accurately predicts how some of us will fall, hurt a knee, and never again will dare roller skate.
“An Explorer” accurately depicts first contact with indigenous peoples.
The future of war is battle cars as depicted in this illustration. Well, we do have tanks and an array of other military vehicles.
A vision of aero battles before the invention of jets and spy planes.
Another fantastic take on diving. This is “Divers on Horseback” and that is not your average seahorse.
In “Microbes”, the French illustrators definitely missed portraying and thus predicting the coronavirus.
A building is self-constructing itself. The architect of the future, all they have to do is press the button.

You May Also Want to Check: Dreaming of the future: postcards from 1900 that imagined inventions of the year 2000 

Tags: , , , ,

» Nostalgia, Postcards » Postcards from 19th-century illustrators depicting the future

Related Posts