New Wisconsin Library Heritage Center Website

As part of a major reworking of the websites for the Wisconsin Library Association, the website for the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center has been reorganized and transferred to a new blog/website software. It is one of only a handful of websites on the Internet that is devoted to library history. I'm currently chair of the Steering Committee of the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center and maintain its website. The website contains a blog with irregular posts and more stable content web pages. In the new site, the more permanent content web pages are listed as topics under the menu headings at the top of the home page. The "History" menu includes much of the content. Blog posts are organized under broad categories on the right side of the website and are also indexed with tags. Inductees to the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame are highlighted on the website with individual blog posts under the "Hall of Fame" category. The new platform used by the Wisconsin Library Association is based on Joomla and the blog software is EasyBlog by Stackideas. The main WLA website is located HERE and the website for the Campaign for Wisconsin Libraries is located HERE.

Bradbury on Carnegie

Author Ray Bradbury died on June 5 at age 91. A post in the Fine Books & Collections Blog by Nate Pedersen about Bradbury reminded me of a letter (shown above) in my collection from Bradbury to a friend in which he refers to Carnegie as "one of my favorite Revolutionary heroes of American History". He continues, "Yep. Revolutionary. He gave us 2500 free libraries and Trusted us to USE them, without restraint. What a fabulous creative man." I came across this other pro-library quote from Bradbury in another blog post: "Libraries raised me. I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries, because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years." It's tough to loose such a great library supporter.

Carnegie's World War I Libraries

First camp library completed with Carnegie funds 

Interior of Camp Johnston, FL Library

When the American Library Association assumed a major responsibility for providing reading matter for U.S. armed forces during World War I through its Library War Service, it applied to the Carnegie Corporation for funding to build camp libraries. On September 14, 1917 the Carnegie Corporation approved a grant for $320,000 to build thirty-two camp libraries.  The cost of each building could not exceed $10,000. The buildings based on a uniform plan were designed without charge by noted New York architect Edward L. Tilton.  The single story buildings were originally designed to be 120 feet long and 40 feet wide although costs later required a reduction in size.  Seating was provided for 225 library users and shelving for 14,000 volumes. A room was set aside for living space for the librarian. Eventually, the Carnegie funding actually provided for thirty-six camp libraries. ALA came up with funding from other sources for four more for a total of forty camp library buildings. The first camp library was opened at Camp Lewis, Washington on November 28, 1917. Most of the others were completed by February 1918. Sadly, there is only one surviving ALA camp library building and it has been significantly modified. It is the Camp Sherman library building in Chillicothe, Ohio. Other posts on this blog about ALA's Library War Service can be found HERE. More ALA camp library postcards can be found HERE. An architectural biography of Edward L. Tilton can be found HERE (large pdf file). The primary source for information in this post is Books for Sammies: The American Library Association and World War I by Arthur P. Young (Beta Phi Mu, 1981).

A Branch and a Bookmobile for African Americans in Carrollton, GA

I recently acquired a postcard (see above) which shows the Delta Sigma Theta bookmobile in front of the King St. Branch Library of of the West Georgia Regional Library in Carrollton, GA. The caption on the back of the postcard indicates that the bookmobile served Carroll, Douglas, Haralson, and Heard Counties in Georgia. The postcard was mailed on September 5, 1956. The Delta Sigma Theta sorority was founded in 1913 at Howard University and has a long history of public service as it relates to the African American community. In 1937 it initiated the  National Library Project which had the goal of providing library service to African Americans in the rural South.  In doing some background research on the postcard I came across a history of the West Georgia Regional Library titled Yonder She Comes! A Once Told Li'bry Tale by Edith Foster (Gateway Printing Co., 1985) which has been placed online in pdf format. Edith Foster was the original director of the West Georgia Regional Library and served in that capacity from 1944 to 1976. Chapter 8 of the book tells about Foster's efforts to establish the King Street Branch Library and the bookmobile service to serve the African American community at a time when the South was still segregated. For two years Foster drove the Delta Sigma Theta bookmobile herself and set up service points for African Americans in all counties. Foster recounts that in order to be prepared to respond to the question "Are you mixing the books?" each book for the King Street Branch was marked with a triangle symbol. The King Street Branch Library ceased operation in 1967 with the completion of the Neva Lomason Memorial Library in Carrollton which served the entire community.  

The Envelopes of R. A. Brock of Virginia

Robert Alonzo Brock (1839-1914) served as the Corresponding Secretary and Librarian of the Virginia Historical Society from 1875 until 1892.  He also served as the Secretary for the Southern Historical Society.  While at the Virginia Historical Society he developed an extensive publications program.  So extensive in fact, that it brought the society to the brink of bankruptcy.  This situation caused his eventual removal from the post of Corresponding Secretary and Librarian by the society’s board.  The publications program of the society also generated a significant amount of correspondence.  Envelopes sent to or from libraries before 1900 are scarce.  So it is unusual that from various sources I have been able to acquire more than forty envelopes that have been sent to the Virginia Historical Society and the Southern Historical Society during the period when Brock was associated with the two historical societies. Most are addressed to R. A. Brock. The question arises as to who and why were the covers retained.  There is a good possibility that Brock, himself, may have saved the covers. In any case, at some point a large group of these envelopes passed into the hands of a stamp dealer and I am now the beneficiary of that action. Brock was a collector of rare books and the “Brock Collection” is located at the Huntington Library in California. More on R. A. Brock can be found in the July/August/September 2003 issue of Virginia Libraries.

A Postcard for Memorial Day

Ninety-five years ago young men all across America were being mobilized to go to a far off war in Europe. The postcard above depicts some of these men at a YMCA library and mail station at Camp Dix, New Jersey. The caption on the back reads: "On the left are bundles of civilian clothing to be sent home by the new soldiers. On the right are soldiers sending home letters and purchasing postcards at the Y.M.C.A. Also library well stocked with good books." A postcard that combines the topics of mail, postcards, and a library - a nice find for a collector of postal librariana. A major appeal of the postcard, of course, is the soldiers themselves. A large number of library postcards show only relatively sterile buildings. I'm particularly interested in library postcards that show people using libraries. A surprising percentage of military library postcards do this. Although the American Library Association played a major role in providing libraries for service men in World War I, the YMCA, a much larger organization, also played a significant role in this area. Though there was some rivalry between the two organizations, ALA and the YMCA collaborated to a significant degree in providing reading matter for our troops in WWI. ALA maintained a full fledged camp library at Camp Dix during WWI (see postcard below).  In 1939 Camp Dix became Fort Dix and a permanent Army post. On a personal aside, my father went through Fort Dix on his way to Europe during World War II.

Cincinnati's Mercantile Library

Cincinnati's Mercantile Library is one of an elite group of membership libraries that has survived into the 21st century. The library was established in 1835 which also puts it into the exclusive 175 year plus library club. I recently acquired an envelope that was mailed by the library on March 24, 1865 (see above). At that time the library was named the "Young Men's Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati" and the envelope indicates that there were 21,700 books in its catalogue. Of interest is the printed message at the top of the envelope which reads: "Donations are solicited of Autograph letters of prominent men especially as have an important bearing on the history of our country and of the recent rebellion. Due acknowledgement will be made and the letters carefully preserved for reference." The Mercantile Library in Cincinnati is one of the sixteen membership libraries that are included in the book America's Membership Libraries edited by Richard Wendorf (Oak Knoll Press, 2007). The article on Cincinnati's membership library is written by Albert Pyle, its Librarian. The most fascinating aspect of the library's history is the story of how its lease for space in the Mercantile Library Building (shown on postcard) came about. According to Pyle, the Mercantile Library moved into the Cincinnati College Building in 1840 but five years later the building burned. In return for a $10,000 advance on future rent in a new Cincinnati College Building, the library was granted a guarantee of space for 10,000 years. In 1869 just four years after the above envelope was mailed the new building also burned. The land, now vacant, on which the College Building stood became very valuable and a developer sought to build a multistory building on it. This could not be done, however, without the consent of the Mercantile Library because of its special lease agreement. As a result the Mercantile Library gained permanent free space on the 11th and 12th floors of the new commercial building which was named the Mercantile Library Building. As Pyle indicates "It is a very good lease." Like the other membership libraries that survive, the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati has had to redefine itself over the years. It has become a literary and cultural institution which sponsors a variety of programs and lectures in addition to the continued lending of books.

Mail Art

It doesn't take much to send me off on a tangent. This time it was a small label (2 3/4" x 3 1/2") which requested information about publications related to mail art. The label was distributed by John Held, Jr of the Fine arts Division of the Dallas Public Library in 1988 and was designed to be affixed to an envelope. Held's purpose was to develop "An Annotated Bibliography of Mail Art".  Held received hundreds of responses to his request and later published the results in the book Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1991). What is mail art? [see Wikipedia's answer] [see Oberlin College's answer] Mail art encompasses a broad range of art forms. There is, of course, the official mail art of governments which takes the form of postage stamps. Artists and graphic designers from around the world design thousands of these each year. I had an earlier post about my favorite library postage stamp designer Bradbury Thompson. Another common mail art form is illustrated envelopes that are designed by cachet makers for the first day of issue of a new postage stamp. These are commonly called first day covers. I have hundreds of first day covers for library postage stamps in my collection. One of my favorite first day covers is for the 1982 Library of Congress postage stamp which is shown above. It was hand painted by cachet maker Judith Fogt. There is a more avant-garde aspect to mail art, however, and John Held is one of the foremost authorities on this genre of mail art. This format includes artistamps which are postage stamp like depictions that often carry an underlying message. Oberlin College has a collection of over 25,000 pieces of mail art. Some examples from their collection is located HERE. There's a nice variety of mail art depicted on this Pinterest site. The Library of Congress Center for the Book's Letters About Literature site has some interesting envelope art. Back for a moment to John Held, Jr. While at the Dallas Public Library, Held curated a major exhibit of library rubber stamps which I wrote about in this blog post.

Postal Librariana Exhibits Win Awards



My 10 frame public library exhibit


As I mentioned in a previous post I had three postal librariana exhibits on display at last week's Rocky Mountain Stamp Show in Denver. There are two audiences for philatelic exhibits at stamp shows. One audience is the general attendees of the stamp show who range from casual collectors to serious philatelists. The other audience is a team of exhibit judges who are certified by the American Philatelic Society. It is the later group which evaluate each exhibit based on established standards and determine whether the exhibit is worthy of a gold, vermeil, silver, silver/bronze, bronze, or certificate award. The judges can give multiple award of each type. The judges also give out special awards made available by national and local stamp organizations. Finally, they determine the best (grand) exhibit and the second best (reserve grand) exhibit. All of my exhibits are related to the history of libraries and as a promoter of library history I am most interested in telling the story of libraries to a general audience. However, that doesn't mean that I am adverse to having my exhibits judged highly from a philatelic perspective, and my exhibits are also prepared with this in mind. I was pleased that my multi-frame exhibit titled "America's Public Libraries and Their Forerunners 1731-1956" received a gold award at the Denver stamp show. It also received an award from the Collectors Club of Denver as the Best Multi-frame Display Division Exhibit and the Collectors Club of Chicago Philatelic Exhibitor's Award (this award came with a collection of 4 philatelic monographs published by the club). My one frame exhibit "Library Uses of Melvil Dewey's Postal Card" received a vermeil medal (between gold and silver) and an award from the United Postal Stationery Society as the Best One Frame Stationery Exhibit. Finally, for some unknown reason my one frame exhibit on the American Philatelic Research Library which I submitted as a non-competitive exhibit received a silver-bronze award. All the exhibit award winners for the Rocky Mountain Stamp Show are listed in a document called "Palmares".  While it's nice to receive awards from the judges, it was especially nice to receive positive feedback from the general attendees of the stamp show. (Note: I want this blog to be about library history and not about me, but every now and then I can't help but toot my own horn.)

The Laughing Librarian, A New Book Preview

McFarland & Company has just published The Laughing Librarian: A History of American Library Humor by Jeanette C. Smith. The book is a must have for anyone interested in library history and/or library humor. The book has forewords by the two greatest living library humorists - Will Manley and Norman D. Stevens which is more than enough to recommend the book. Smith is a New Mexico State University Library faculty member and a collector of library humor for almost four decades. My copy of the book is on order from Amazon, but Amazon provides a surprising amount of content via its "search inside this book" feature. Before ordering I was able to look at the table of contents and the index, read the two forewords and the introduction, and also read parts of some of the chapters. The book documents the history of library humor from 1876 up to the present. Some of the chapters include: Humors and Blunders; Batgirl Was a Librarian - Library Superheroes; Librarian Types and Stereotypes - She's a Keeper; Library Staff - They Also Serve; Shhh! - The Unforgivable Sin; The Fear Factor; For SEX, See the Librarian; and Joyfully Subversive. There are also chapters on Will Manley and Norman D. Stevens as well as on Edmund Lester Pearson, "The Main Guy".  Smith is a Fellow of the Molesworth Institute and the first recipient of the Edmund Lester Pearson Library Humor Award. I have to say that I am biased in recommending this books since I am also a Fellow of the Molesworth Institute and a recipient of the Edmund Lester Pearson Library Humor Award. I can't wait to get my hands on the actual book!