What is the Groman/Tjiering Collection website at tgtc.org?

Updated

tgtc.org is the online home of The Groman/Tjiering Collection, a personal collection of postcards spanning many decades. If you are trying to work out whether the site is a shop, an archive, or a gallery, the short answer is: it is a collection display. The site presents postcards as a curated body of material rather than as products for sale, and the categories shown on the page are the main way the collection is organised.

What the site is

The site is built around one named collection: The Groman/Tjiering Collection. Its stated scope is postcards "spanning many decades," which means the interest is historical and thematic rather than tied to a single period, publisher, or country.

The visible structure is a set of subject categories. From the page evidence, these include:

  • Bathing beauties
  • Women
  • Men
  • Couples
  • Families
  • Mona Lisa
  • Architecture
  • Film & TV series

That mix is worth noting. Some categories describe people and social types (bathing beauties, women, men, couples, families). Others describe subject matter or media (Mona Lisa, architecture, film & TV series). A collection organised this way is usually browsed by theme, not searched by date or catalogue number.

What it is not

There are no pricing signals on the page: no prices, no payment links, and no payment platforms. That is consistent with a private collection being shown publicly rather than a commercial storefront. If you arrive expecting to buy postcards, the site does not present itself that way.

It also does not read as an institutional archive with catalogue records, finding aids, or provenance documentation. The description is simply "a collection of postcards spanning many decades."

Who it is for

The site is likely to be useful if you:

  • Want to browse historical postcard imagery by theme
  • Are interested in how ordinary subjects — couples, families, bathing beauties — were depicted across decades
  • Are looking for visual reference material on architecture or film and TV imagery as it appeared on postcards
  • Enjoy personal collections presented as galleries rather than as searchable databases

It is less suited to you if you need to buy postcards, verify an item's market value, or search a formal catalogue by date, printer, or location.

How to approach it

Start from the category list and treat it as a browsing experience. Because the collection spans many decades, expect variation in style, printing quality, and subject treatment within a single category. The "Mona Lisa" and "Film & TV series" groupings in particular suggest the collection includes reproductions and popular-culture imagery alongside portrait and social-scene cards.

One practical caveat: the page evidence gives the collection name and category headings, but not the size of the collection, the identity of the collectors, or how items were acquired. If those details matter to you, they are not established by what is shown here.