Christmas exhibition “The calendar through the years”

At the heart of its temporary exhibition on “Christmas images” you can discover a highlight of the calendars.

Since its creation, the Pfaffenhoffen Museum of Popular Images has had a strong link with this typology of works. Calendars illustrated by Alsatian artists from the 19th to the 21st centuries are in fact part of the initial collection. Each year, a small corpus from the inventoried works is exhibited within the “Christmas Images” route.

Winter 2023 will be the occasion for a greater focus on this theme, with the borrowing of several calendars from the Heritage Fund of the André Malraux Media Library in Strasbourg.

The calendar in its currently known stripped-down form is a substitute for the almanac which has been used for a long time among rural and urban families.

The exhibition presents, through a condensed focus, some characteristics of the evolution of the calendar in the 19th and 20th centuries. By focusing on the different producing printing companies, the ornamental motifs and images as well as the educational or patriotic messages conveyed, a whole history of local, political and social developments can be observed.