Back of the postcard

Back of Dutch postcard

The back of this ‘Dutch’ postcard does not refer to the theme of the front at all. The sender merely wrote a short message to her friend much in the same way as we would write each other text messages on our smartphone nowadays. That indicates how normal and ordinary it was to use immigrants and different ethnicities as a basis for humorous jokes. The stereotypes and messages were so prevalent that they were taken for granted. However, that does not mean people generally disliked the Dutch and the Germans. On the contrary, people expressed positive affections and “high regard” towards their comical protagonists in the Pennsylvania German literature and poems.[1]


[1] Kersten, Holger. "Using the Immigrant's Voice: Humor and Pathos in Nineteenth Century "Dutch" Dialect Texts." MELUS 21, no. 4 (1996): 6. doi:10.2307/467639.

Back of the postcard