Giovanni Bonello Collection of Postcards

Dr Giovanni Bonello’s 2022 donation to the national maritime collection constitutes a substantial visual record of ships calling at Malta. Comprising over 1,400 postcards and prints, the collection mainly depicts British naval vessels throughout various phases of the island’s colonial and post-colonial history. A large proportion of the images date to a period when the island functioned as a global and regional projector of British imperial power, particularly from the 1920s onward, when the Mediterranean Fleet increasingly expected itself to intervene in the Far East against possible Japanese expansion. The collection also reflects Malta’s offensive role during the Second World War and its history as a NATO base during a portion of the Cold War.