Guiding team outside of Stirling Castle provided from Historic Environment Scotland. 

The Stirling Castle postcard was apart of a series and was published by Valentine. This postcard can explain a lot about the time period it was created in, and has many aspects that can help a reader understand the historical context. For instance, features such as borders, having a front and back, lack of human life, and many more are all characteristics that can help a historian or researcher recognize the time period and context. Scottish castles play a key role in the history of Scotland, and the Stirling Castle postcard can help examine the significant era it was created in. 

Inside the Stirling Castle provided by Historic Enviornment Scotland.

Since there is no representation of the lived experience and human life included in the postcard, it could be seen as an iconographic place because it only wants to focus on the significance of the palace. There is no display of any humans or wildlife which is a way to focus more on the importance of the castle and what it represented at the time. Postcards are a way to connect and keep others updated on the places someone has travelled. This postcard would draw the interest of people who are facinated in military, colonial ideology, law and power, and the renaissance period. Its use was most likely for souvenirs rather than something that was sent to another person, since there is no writing. Next, since this postcard has a front and back page it confirms that it was made after 1902. (Atkips, 2013). This can help someone understand the literature at the time if it had writing on it. Another element that can help identify the historical context of this postcard is how the back of the postcard is damaged meaning it has most likely been through a lot. Postcards were used at first for people who were traveling or sent away at war and wanted to send notes to their loved ones, but then the detail of the pictorial decoration became popular. (Brady, 1969). The Stirling Castle postcard is definitely used for pictorial decoration as the picture is made to make the castle look superior and display its greatness and is made to be kept as a keepsake. Although this postcard does not have all the features that were popular at the time, it has a special nostaligic appeal and demonstrates the importance of  the histoircal value of this remarkable castle.