On the Lotus: Postcards 1898-1931
Love letters, travel updates, expressions of grief, boredom, excitement, and longing: this book brings together more than 150 postcards written by passengers aboard the Lotus, a French liner that connected Marseille with the great ports of the eastern Mediterranean between 1898 and 1931. Written by pilgrims and poets, soldiers and sex workers, royals and revolutionaries, the messages offer rare glimpses into everyday life during one of the most transformative periods of modern history.
An afterword explores the ship’s enduring legal legacy as the namesake of international law’s Lotus Case of 1927.
You can purchase a printed copy of the book from Lund University here.
The first 30 copies will be accompanied by a real postcard from the Lotus or Tonkin (as the Lotus was known until 1913).
The digital version of the book is available open access. You can access it here.
Extra materials related to the Lotus (including video clips and images) can be accessed here.
Our Tour Guides
International law is not something that lives only in museums — it is all around us, shaping the world we inhabit every day. You can find it in public squares, village streets, train stations, shops, libraries, parks, and countless other familiar places. To help make this easier to see and explore international law in your own surroundings, our museum team has begun creating a series of tour guides. If you would like to suggest a place, town, or city for our next tour guide project, please get in touch with us.
Our Tour Guides
1. Lund: City of International Law: in English, på svenska
2. Lund: The Building of the Faculty of Law: in English, på svenska
3. Berlin: City of International Law (Link to accompanying GoogleMap)
