Postcards from the Museo de Artes Populares de Sevilla

These postcards offer a clear insight into the importance attached to major infrastructure undertakings as a way to build the paradigm of modernity, especially during the 20th century. Apart from serving as a visual record, these cards acted as powerful propaganda tools, exalting human domination of nature at a time when industrialization and progress were regarded as core values. The postcards show great civil engineering works such as dams, barrages and canals. These images reached a wide audience and conveyed the message that the control over water – a vital and often scarce resource – had been fully achieved. As such, they helped build a national identity that took pride in technological achievements and in the capability to transform the land in favor of economic development.