Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1542941
10 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 30 JANUARY 2026 CULTURE A collection of postcards donat- ed to Heritage Malta by Judge Giovanni Bonello in 2022 has been uploaded on the agency's recently inaugurated eMuseum platform for public enjoyment and appreciation. The collection, comprising nearly 1500 postcards and post- card-size photos, was built grad- ually from scratch by Giovanni Bonello himself since his youth. Both the postcards and the pho- tos show warships and subma- rines in Maltese harbours be- tween the 1880s and the 1970s. Some of the scenes depicted show very rare ships that sailed into our harbours, such as the battleships Breslau and Goeben in the First World War, and will therefore form an important part of the Maritime Museum's collection. Among the more curious im- ages is the torpedo ram HMS Polyphemus lying in Dockyard Creek. This short-lived late nineteenth- century experiment sought to combine emerging technologies with a very archaic naval tactic. The Bonello donation also doc- uments Malta's shifting strategic significance. A large proportion of the postcards dates to a peri- od when the island functioned as a global and regional projec- tor of British imperial power, particularly from the 1920s on- ward, when the Mediterranean Fleet increasingly expected it- self to intervene in the Far East against possible Japanese expan- sion. The collection also reflects Malta's offensive role during the Second World War and its his- tory as a NATO base during a portion of the Cold War. Following the donation, the whole collection was digitized and catalogued, and has now been uploaded into Heritage Malta's collections management system and made available on the public-facing web platform of the eMuseum. Upon receiving significant donations, the agency actively looks for innovative and engag- ing ways to make such contri- butions accessible to the pub- lic. This approach ensures that these items are not confined to a reserved collection or mere- ly placed in a museum, but are shared widely for public appre- ciation and accessibility. The postcard collection may be viewed on eMuseum here: https://emuseum.heritage- m a l t a . m t / a d v a n c e d s e a r c h / O b j e c t s / t e x t E n t r i e s C o l l e c - tion%3AThe%20Giovanni%20 Bonello%20 Collection%20 of%20Postcards/images It is also accessible from the main page of eMuseum here: https://emuseum.heritagemal- ta.mt/collections Giovanni Bonello postcard collection uploaded on eMuseum for all to enjoy The collection, comprising nearly 1500 postcards and postcard-size photos, was built gradually from scratch by Giovanni Bonello himself since his youth The collection reflects Malta's offensive role during WWII and its history as a NATO base during a portion of the Cold War