Current Library Postcard Collections and Collectors

Judy Aulik has a library postcard collection of around 3,000 items. She has digitized many of the postcards and makes them available on her website Library Postcards: Civic Pride in a Lost America.

Lewis Baer, an active library user in Northern California, has a collection of 1000+ postcards of Carnegie libraries worldwide. Lew was the founder and six year leader of the Petaluma Museum that is located in a stately former Carnegie library in Sonoma County, CA. Lew's wife Janet collects postcards of library interiors and currently has a collection of over 200. Lew can be contacted at editor@postcard.org. Also check out the http://www.postcard.org Web site with which Lew has a connection.

Frank Cutting Blaisdell Collection - Boston Public Library. Frank Cutting Blaisdell, Assistant Librarian at the BPL (1859-19??), collected roughly 900 library postcards that are now contained in three albums housed in the Rare Book Room of the BPL under the call number ** H.80.298. The cards were all apparently mailed to Blaisdell and arranged at some point by a classification system - e.g., 65-3 - that he pencilled on the front of most of the cards. The albums, which are arranged alphabetically by state and then by city, were assembled in 1934 with two representing the main sequence containing about 850 cards and the third a supplement with about 60 cards. (entry provided by Norman D. Stevens)

The Booth Library Postcard Collection of Eastern Illinois University includes an extensive collection of postcards showing Illinois libraries. In 2010 it also acquired 2,811 library postcards which were assembled by Christian Schaller.

The Special Collections Department of Buley Library of Southern Connecticut State University possesses a collection of 1400 postcards depicting libraries. Although there are cards for all states and most European countries, the holdings are strongest in items from Maine and Connecticut. In addition, there are about 300 cards depicting books, manuscripts, writing paraphernalia, and other materials relating to the written word. Many of these cards were the gift of David C. Libbey, onetime professor of Library Science at the university.

Michele Farrell of Alexandria, VA, a librarian who works for the Institute of Museum and Library Service, has a collection of over 9,000 cards of libraries from around the world.

Harvard College Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. A letter, dated 11/28/62, in the L. C. Powell Collection at UCLA from Donald Clark indicates that he has seen a collection of library postcards in the stacks of the Widener Library housed in one or two red manila rope boxes about 3" thick. Another letter, dated 9/20/62 from David Weber, also in the Powell Collection indicates that he has seen a collection of library postcards in the Harvard University Archives dating from about 1920 that were collected by a former library staff member. See also the entry under Ella A. Walton. (entry provided by Norman D. Stevens)

Sjoerd Koopman, a retired librarian in the Netherlands who worked for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), has a growing collection of postcards depicting libraries: library buildings (both exterior and interior views), antique and modern, black & white and color, used and unused from all countries of the world. The collection contains currently more than 12,700 cards from approximately 100 different countries. He accepts donations and is willing to exchange cards with fellow collectors. He can be contacted at: sjoerd.koopman@telfort.nl.

The Bibliotheekmuseum (Library Museum) which is located in the Bibliotheek Amsterdam (Amsterdam Library) was founded by Hans Krol who has an extensive collection of library postcards. Krol is actively soliciting library postcards for the museum collection. Donations to the museum can be sent to: Library Museum Committee, Hans Krol, Joh. Verhulstlaan 26, 2102 XT Heemstede, The Netherlands.

Bernadette A. Lear, a librarian at Penn State University at Harrisburg, has a collection of about 800 postcards emphasizing urban public libraries in the United States.

Harvey Lynch collects postcards and other ephemera of the New York Public Library.

Rossana Morriello, librarian at the University of Venice, Italy, has a growing collection of over 250 library postcards, mainly from Europe. She also collects other library gadgets and she maintains some pages on librariana on the website of the Italian Library Association: AIB-WEB. Librariana http://www.aib.it/aib/clm/clm-e.htm .

Larry T. Nix of Middleton, Wisconsin, retired Director of Public Library Development for the Wisconsin State Library, has a collection of 1,700 plus library postcards. His collection includes Wisconsin libraries, the Library War Service of the American Library Association in WWI, bookmobiles, and representative library postcards from the United States and the rest of the world. Nix’s collection includes a collection of 280 library postcards which belonged to Ana Felt of Galena, Illinois. Ms. Felt was an avid collector of library postcards and was involved in planning the Carnegie library building in Galena.

Gaspara Paietta is a retired librarian in Italy. She has a small collection of library postcards which she would like to expand. She can be contacted at gaspara@tin.it.

Lawrence Clark Powell Collection at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. The collection of library postcards that Powell began while Dean of the library school at UCLA numbers about 3,000 cards. This collection was initiated about 1960. it consists of 7 file boxes, and about 2,500 cards, and is now in the Special Collections Department of the University Research Library at UCLA. The collection contains two cards of the Howard University Libraries from N.D. Stevens to LCP including one with the message "I like odd projects involving libraries and librarians... & will be glad to send you on cards whenever I come across them." There are also two cards from others addressed to NDS in the collection. "Powell's Postcards" appeared in the UCLA Librarian of 11/21/62; a letter on page 391 of American Libraries for January 1963 contains another query from Powell asking for information about how to arrange library postcards. (entry provided by Norman D. Stevens)

Bart Ripp of Gig Harbor, Washington has a collection of more than 150,000 postcards of built America, including about 1,000 US library postcards.

The architectural firm of Johnson Roberts Associates has created a website featuring library postcards collected by Stewart Roberts and Christian Schaller. The collection also includes some legacy collections of other library postcard collectors.

Architect Stewart Roberts of Johnson Roberts Associates is a library postcard collector. The architectural firm has created a website to display the collection.

Mark Tucker, Dean of Library and Information Resources at Abilene Christian University, collects postcards connected to Oberlin College and the Oberlin College Library.

Ann Waidelich, Madison, Wisconsin. Ann, who is retired from the Madison Public Library, collects postcards of Wisconsin libraries. She currently has more than 231 cards from 109 cities. She is treasurer of the Four Lakes Postcard Club in Madison, WI. For information on the club she can be contacted at annwaid@sbcglobal.net.

Anne and Billy Wilkinson Collection of Library Postcards at UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections. Includes approximately 5,800 postcards representing libraries during 1900-90 that were given by the Wilkinsons in 2008-2009 in honor of James Davis.

Laboratory Library of the School of Library and Information Studiers, University of Wisconsin - Madison. A collection of several hundred library postcards is housed at the library. A letter, dated 11/12/62, in the L. C. Powell collection at UCLA from Wilma Bennett indicates that this collection had been assembled by Mr. Allez. This is no longer an active collection.