Library Postcard Favorites
I have a fairly modest collection of around a 1,500 library postcards. I focus my collecting around several special areas. These include Wisconsin libraries, the ALA Library War Service in World War I, bookmobiles, and postcards that have a message on the reverse that has a library connection. Here are a few favorites in my collection.
The postcard below is an American Library Association (ALA) Conference announcement for the 1911 Conference in Pasadena, CA. The picture side of the card is a desert scene near Los Angeles.
The postcard below contains a note from a faculty member at the Library School of the Wisconsin Library Commission, now the School of Library and Information Studies at the UW-Madison, to the public librarian in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. The picture is of the second floor interior of the Madison Public Library. Madison received a larger grant from Andrew Carnegie to provide space for the library school on the second floor. Sadly, the beautiful Carnegie Library was demolished to make way for a parking lot. The stamp on the card has been perforated with the initials "WIS". Perfins were a security device to prevent misuse of stamps by employees.
This
is a postcard from the collection of Ana Felt of Galena, Illinois. Ms.
Felt was actively involved in planning the Carnegie library building in Galena.
She was an avid collector of library postcards. The card depicts the City Hall,
Carnegie Library, Municipal Building, and Fire Hall in Owen Sound, Ontario,
Canada. The message reads, "I understand that you have the library habit
so send you this delightful combination which certainly is unusual." I have over 180 postcards from Felt's collection.
Another postcard from the Felt collection. This one depicts the Pekin Illinois Public Library. Message from Ann M. Smith, the Pekin librarian, reads, "Kindly send me your library postal in exchange." "Cost $17,500."
This 1911 postcard includes an announcement from the University of Michigan Summer School of Library Methods on the back of postcard of the Carnegie Library in Ann Arbor Michigan.
Other postcard favorites are on the following Web pages and others on this site:
ALA World War I Postcards - Merchant Marine
Carnegie Libraries in Wisconsin