Postcards of early Malta hotels

Abstract

Postcards serve a primary purpose of conveying through the post at a convenient rate a message illustrated by a picture. Additionally they can also be made to fulfil the function of advertising goods and services. Hotel owners in Malta at the end of the Victorian era, through the Edwardian years and later, saw the opportunities latent in the system. Some of them had postcards custom-made for commercial promotion. The Great Britain Hotel of South Street, Valletta invested most in these adverts. It had a whole series of cards printed, some showing features of the hotel, others with tourist views of Malta. Most other hotels settled for one or two cards showing the facade or the interior. These hotel cards range from the scarce to the very rare. [excerpt]