ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 646 / C &RL News A cadem ic lib rary postcards By Billy R . Wilkinson D irector, Albin O. Kuhn L ibrary & Gallery University o f M aryland, B altim ore County Exterior views from pioneer to contemporary. Editor's N ote: “A country o f collectors! ” T h a t’s how a recent British visitor described the United States. H e was most im pressed w ith m eeting so many Am ericans w ho w ere serious (even fren zied ) collectors o f everything fr o m crystal celery vases to library postcards. H e asked Billy W ilkinson abou t the latter m ania and the E ditor asked him to share his inform ation on a cad em ic library postcards in tw o articles. T he s ec o n d w ill a p p e a r in a fe w m onths an d b e d e v o te d to lib ra ry in teriors as show n on the cards. Collectors of library postcards have been more openly admitting their pursuit of these elusive ephemera in recent years thanks to the delightful Norman Stevens, director of libraries at the Uni­ versity of Connecticut. Dr. Stevens invited the col­ lectors out of the closet and to a public forum enti­ tled “Images of Librarianship: What Collecting Librariana Can Tell Us about Library History” at the 1982 American Library Association Annual Conference. The six speakers were well reviewed in the library press.1 Two made remarks on post­ cards. The elegant exhibition “Carnegie’s Libraries: A Sesquicentennial C elebration” in 1985 at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York City was yet another major milestone of recognition for post­ card collectors. Many vintage library postcards from the extensive Norman Stevens collection were 1“The Balancing Act: A Report on the 101st An­ nual Conference of the ALA,” L ibrary Jou rn al 107 (September 1, 1982): 1608. featured in the survey of the more than 1,600 free public libraries built with Carnegie funding. Stevens continued to add renown to library post­ card collectors with the publication in 1986 of his G uide to Collecting L ibrarian a (Scarecrow Press, 166 pages). Along with material on badges, post­ age stamps, rubber stamps, shopping bags, T- shirts, and other ephemera, he provided a bibliog­ raphy and guide for beginning collectors as well as articles by others on such topics as the messages written on library postcards. Views of academe Turning to academic library postcards, what do we find? If we begin by quantifying, academic cards come in a definite second to public library cards. In the author’s collection of 5,205 library postcards, there are 156 Boston Public Library cards and 158 New York Public Library ones. (The Library of Congress cards number 305 in this par­ ticular collection and finish in first place.) In Ju­ dith E. Holliday’s collection of more than 3,050 postcards, there are 75 Boston Public Library, 48 New York Public Library, and 108 Library of Con­ gress. The winner from academe in the author’s collec­ tion is the Low Library at Columbia University with 57 postcards. They show that magnificent McKim, Mead & White building by light of day in 56 instances (see cover) and by moonlight on one fanciful card. Two cards have had sparkling glitter glued on by some anonymous hands to outline someone’s idea of the dimensions of Low Library’s splendor. In contrast, there are only eight postals of November 1988 / 647 the Butler Library at Columbia in the author’s col­ lection. The Holliday collection has 38 Low L i­ brary postcards and 2 Butler Library ones. The 1890 Cornell University Library with its dis­ tinctive clock tower (now renovated and renamed the Uris Undergraduate Library and the Jennie McGraw Tower) with 41 different cards is in sec­ ond place for academe in the author’s collection. (This, however, may be due to the fact that he lived in Ithaca and worked at Cornell for eight years and still visits there and shops for cards in the Cornell Bookstore.) Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is represented by 23 cards. The Sterling Memorial Library is seen on 14 cards. When one counts the “Old Library” (see cover), the “New Library,” and the Cross Campus Library, Yale is represented by an additional ten cards for a total of 47 postals of its libraries. For comparison, the Holliday collection has 16 postcards of the 1890 Cornell Library, 23 of Yale’s Beinecke, 11 of the Sterling Memorial Library, and a total of 40 postcards of Yale’s libraries. Other random quantities in the author’s collec­ tion from about the country: Doe Library, Univer­ sity of California at Berkeley, 12; Widener Library at Harvard, 11; Harper Memorial Library, Uni­ versity of Chicago, 10; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 8; General Library at the University of Michigan, 8; Lilly Library, Indiana University, 6; University of Nebraska Library in Lincoln, 5; and Anderson Memorial Library, Col­ lege of Emporia, Kansas, 4. But numbers do not have to do with quality and variety. W hat kinds of academic library postcards are there? Just as there are pioneer viewcards (in­ cluding private mailing cards), later and contem­ porary viewcards, cards showing political and so­ cial history, advertising postcards, sets, signed artists, “greetings from ,” linens, photographic cards, and novelties as the main categories of regu­ lar postcards, academic library postcards may be similarly categorized. According to Dorothy Ryan, picture postcards really began in the United States with the souvenir issues available in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. These are not, however, the earliest commercially produced picture postcards. Ryan believes the first private (not government is­ sued) postcard in the U.S. was copyrighted on De­ cember 17, 1861, by J.P . Charlton and published in Philadelphia by H .L. Lipman.2 “Pioneers” are those cards published, but not necessarily mailed, before the Act of Congress of May 19, 1898, which intended to allow, effective July 1, 1898, privately printed postcards the same postal privileges as the cards issued by the Federal government (privately printed cards had required two cents postage instead of one cent on the govern­ ment cards). An example from the author’s collec­ tion of an academic pioneer which is a private mailing card is the University of Illinois (see Figure 1). One wrote the message on one side along with the picture of the building and on the verso there was space for the name and address of the corres­ pondent. 2Dorothy B. Ryan, P ictu re P ostcard s in th e United States, 1893-1918 (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1982), 1. Fig. 1. T he University o f Illinois L ibrary. 648 / C &RL News Viewcards from the 1890s to the most contempo­ rary are myriad in number. Surely, viewcards are the majority of postcards published in the U.S. and library viewcards are also myriad. An attractive contemporary card recently mailed to the author is the Chester Fritz Library at the University of North Dakota (see Figure 2). There are many regular postcards which show political and social history (presidential cam ­ paigns, wars, suffrage, prohibition, etc.). How­ ever, the author’s collection contains no academic library postcards displaying political or social his­ tory. Does anyone have a postcard mailed by a can­ didate for ACRL president asking for your vote? All library postcards are in one sense advertising cards. The academic library postal was and may still be a way to market the library and the campus to prospective students, parents, and others. A con­ temporary advertising card is that of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, University of Maryland Baltimore County. On the front is a photograph of the building (see Figure 3) and on the verso is a list of present and future exhibitions in the gallery. There are more specialized advertising cards mar­ keting shelving and bookmobiles, particularly to public libraries. From 1905 to 1915 when postcard collecting may have been at its peak, publishing firms sought to sell collectors sets of cards (ranging from U.S. presidents and state capitols to women represent­ ing states, nations, cities, and colleges). Among public libraries, sets of cards showing the murals of the Boston Public Library are a good example. In the author’s collection, there is only one set of cards which pertain to academe. The “Memorial Post­ card Series by Wisconsin Library Workers” fea­ tures the 1900 graduating class at the University of Illinois (see Figure 4) as well as other academic cards (portraits of Margaret E. Monroe and oth­ ers). Signed artists cards range from Howard Chan­ dler Christy and his romantic drawings of Ameri­ can women to Frederick Burr Opper and his light­ hearted cartoons of Alphonse and Gaston as well as biting political satire.3 Searching the author’s col­ lection failed to produce any signed artists aca­ demic postcards. Next to viewcards, surely the type of card most frequently found in general collections is “Greet­ ings From … ” We all have sent and received these postals. Although it does not send you greetings, Figure 5 is one of my favorites with this motif: “The Chicago Public Libraries” with the Harper Memo­ rial Library at the University of Chicago on the cover of a book, along with the Chicago Public L i­ brary, the Newberry Library, and the John Crerar Library. The text on the card’s verso reads: “Chi­ cago Public Libraries. Pictured you see the four 3Ryan, Picture Postcards, 207. Fig. 2. T he C hester Fritz L ibrary at the University o f N orth D akota. November 1988 / 649 Fig. 3. T he Albin O. Kuhn L ibrary and G allery, University o f M aryland, B altim ore County. Fig. 4. L ibrary science graduating Class o f 1900, the University o f Illinois, w ith inset o f Minnie Earl Sears (Muriel Fuller M em orial Series, no. 1, by Wisconsin W om en L ibrary W orkers). 650 / C&RL News Fig, 5. C hicago libraries. leading Libraries in Chicago. The Chicago Public Library, Harper Memorial Library, John Crerar Library and the Newberry Library. Chicago is truly a bookish town.” This postal is also a linen card. Or are linen postcards the most common of all? These grainy, slightly unpleasant cards, often with a bad yellow border, seem much too numerous! This, however, is probably an erroneous impres­ sion on the author’s part. Of the 57 postcards of the Low Library at Columbia University cited above, only six are linens. Turning from the ridiculous to the sublime might characterize going from linens to photo­ graphic cards. Hal Morgan and Andreas Brown have chronicled the American photographic post­ card from 1900-1920 in their Prairie Fires and Pa­ per Moons (Boston: David R. Godine, 1981). They could have included the Stanford Library and Hoover Tower (see Figure 6) among their exam­ ples. What is a greater delight for a collector than finding a novelty card to add to his academic li­ brary collection? The author’s novelty catches, so far, are the cards of the Low Library and others to which anonymous but delicate hands have out­ lined the buildings in tinsel. (Tinseling glue and special “jeweling outfits” were available to deco­ rate postals at home.4) But the author is still fishing in the flea markets of the world for a “hold-to-the- light” postcard (multilayered cards on which cer­ tain parts of the top layer have been cut out so that 4Ryan, Picture Postcards, 249. when held to the light the cut portion, usually win­ dows, the sun or moon or stars, appear realistically illuminated). Or to haul in a leather or wood card. O that one of these novelties would be of an aca­ demic library! After counting and categorizing, what’s still to be done in this very brief excursion into the realm of exterior views of academic libraries? Appraise their value and condition. Read their messages. View and enjoy them. The value of postcards in general as well as all collectibles seems to be increasing greatly. Tin T ype, the publication of the Tin Container Collec­ tors Association, bemoans the auction price of $9,000 for a Dr. Pepper dispenser and $13,000 for a Buster Brown shoe-store sign.5 Ed Marks, the editor of The Ic e S cream er, also worries about the “dramatically escalating prices of all collectibles and our concern for the future of collecting for those with limited dollars to spend.”6 In late 1984, Postcard C ollector recorded that in “a private sale earlier this year, the most expensive postcard—the postcard reproduction of Mucha’s advertising poster for Waverly Cycles—changed ownership for $4,400.”7 Scanning other issues of Postcard C ollector from 1984 to date, one finds “a strong demand for mid- 5Nosmo King, “Nosmo’s Trip to No Hope,” The Ic e S cream er, no. 37 (August 1988): 4. 6Ed Marks, “The Editor’s Own Page,” The Ice S cream er, no. 37 (August 1988): 2. 7“Market Trends,” Postcard C ollector 2 (Decem­ ber 1984): 30. November 1988 / 651 Fig, 6. Stanford University L ibrary and H oover M em orial Stanford University., die price cards,” that “linens are coming into their own,” and “no let up in the demand for views” in 1985.8 “Record prices” for a large collection at auc­ tion were also recorded the same year.9 By 1987, “bargains at shows” were described.10 It is still possible to purchase a library postcard for 25 cents at a flea market, but many are now $1.00 or more. The card’s condition naturally has a bearing on its price. Space limitations prevent a discussion of how the condition of cards is described and the preservation, storage, and display of library post­ cards. It is also not possible to regale you with a treatise on the messages found on library postcards. A keen observer of the postcard world has written that “the picture or verse is the first thing that a post­ card collector looks for. Probably next is the stamp. Then, if at all interested, the message. When friends who are not collectors pick up one of your treasured cards, they invariably look at the mes­ sage first and comment, T always like to read what people have to say.’”11 You are, however, referred to the author’s scholarly survey of messages on cards published earlier.12 There is space enough for a special plea, a prom­ ise, and a recommendation. Dear Reader: The au­ thor would welcome a postcard of your library— academic or otherwise— mailed to him at the Kuhn Library & Gallery, UM BC, Baltim ore, Maryland 21228. He will revive the custom of sending you one in return. He also promises the reader that an article will be forthcoming in this journal on those very scarce postcards: the interiors of academic libraries. Finally, he invites you to join the growing band of library postcard collectors. You can enjoy reading the message on the postcard only after you have had the other great pleasures of viewing the picture at great length, perusing the stamp, examining the condition of the card, and appraising its value to you. 8“Market Trends,” Postcard C ollector 3 (August 1985): 24. 9“Market Trends,” P ostcard C ollector 3 (No­ vember 1985): 6. 10“Market Trends,” Postcard C ollector 5 (Sep­ tember 1987): 6. 11Marian Mulroy, “The Other Side of the Card: Postcard Messages,” P ostcard C o llecto r 2 (July 1984): 24. 12Billy R. Wilkinson, “Library Postcards: The Messages,” in Norman D. Stevens, A G uide to C ol­ lectin g L ib r a ria n a (Metuehen, N .J .: Scarecrow Press, 1986), 68-73. Clarifications Eleanor L. Heishman, whose profile ap­ peared in the September 1988 issue of C irR L News, was named director of libraries at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Rebecca Sturm, whose “Innovations” article, “When Closing a Library Is Progress,” appeared in the September 1988 issue, is acting director of the W. Frank Steely Library, Northern Ken­ tucky University, Highland Heights.