Friday, November 21, 2008

Iowa's Carnegie Libraries


Library Historian Christine Pawley brought my attention to the redesigned website for the Carnegie Libraries in Iowa Project (CLIP). This is a great website and a great project. According to the website: "CLIP seeks to document the history and changes in Iowa's Carnegie libraries by scanning each library's collection of archival materials. As materials are collected and made available in a database record for each community, it will be possible to more completely study and understand the history of Iowa's Carnegie libraries in the context of their evolving communities." This is a worthy model for other states with Carnegie libraries. I'm involved with the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center which has a much more modest webpage on the Carnegie libraries in Wisconsin. The Library History Buff website has a list of other websites related to Carnegie libraries.


The real picture postcard (RPPC) at the top of the entry shows the Carnegie Library in Jefferson, Iowa. The postcard was made by J. B. Hughes of Boone, Iowa. It was mailed on June 21, 1909 to Anna Felt of Galena, Illinois. It is part of my collection of Anna Felt postcards. It is unusual in that it is 7 inches wide instead of the usual 5 1/2 inches.

Judy Aulik's library postcard website has a good selection of Iowa Carnegie library postcards. The Library Postcard site of Sharon McQueen and Richard Douglas also has a number of Iowa library postcards.

1 comment:

k8 said...

That postcard looks like it is in great condition! Postcards aren't really my area, but my mother collects and sells them (my parents own an antique mall), so I've picked up a bit about them.