Zestien sluitzegels met bezienwaardigheden te Berner-Oberland 1896 - 1897

This sheet of sixteen adhesive stamps with sights in the Bernese Oberland was created by Gebrüder Wehrli. These images are more than pretty postcards; they’re documents of a time of rapid transformation, as the picturesque Swiss Alps were being marketed to tourists. In these carefully framed views, we see not just mountains and valleys, but also the infrastructure of tourism being built: railways, hotels, and carefully laid out paths. These are landscapes being tamed for consumption. Consider the absence in these images. Who is invited to partake in this vision of Switzerland, and who is not? Whose labor built these railways and hotels, and whose stories are left untold in these pristine scenes? These stamps offer a window into a world where the beauty of nature is intertwined with complex questions of access, labor, and representation, inviting us to reflect on what it means to see and be seen in a landscape.