Possessions: Indigenous Art / Colonial Culture / Decolonization
Nicholas Thomas
Any communication network needs a way of identifying individuals. A QSL card is a written confirmation of prior communication between two amateur radio or citizens band stations—postcard sized and mailed between users.
Do You Confirm Receipt of My Transmission is derived from the Q code. A Q code message can stand for a statement or a question (when the code is followed by a question mark). In this case, ‘QSL?’ (note the question mark) means “Do you confirm receipt of my transmission?” while ‘QSL’ (without a question mark) means “I confirm receipt of your transmission.”
Just like today’s internet avatars, operators had their own style and often projected their personality using their QSL cards. Collecting cards was popular, and a source of pride to operators.
Published by Brooklyn-based design imprint, Standards Manual, Do You Confirm Receipt of My Transmission is a visual history of these cards, spanning from approximately 1960–1990. Over 190 cards are included, front and back, with high resolution details. The collection forms a visual history of early global communication — something we now take for granted but was once a marvel. Today, there are over 3 million licensed radio operators worldwide.
Nicholas Thomas, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge since 2006, is author of many books on art, history and empire in the Pacific. Over 2018-19, he co-curated 'Oceania' for the Royal Academy of Arts and Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac. He was awarded the 2010 Wolfson History Prize for his book Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire.