The World's Most Valuable Library Postal Card

During World War I the price of United States government issued postal cards was increased from one cent to two cents to help raise revenue to fund the war (what a concept).  Postal cards issued for international use including the 1911 Grant postal card were already priced at two cents and were commonly used domestically in the United States during World War I.  After the war, existing domestic postal cards priced at two cents during the war were mechanically overwritten to indicate the return to the lower one cent rate. The Postmaster of Long Beach, California inadvertently reduced the two cent international Grant postal cards to the one cent rate. There are only three confirmed copies of the inappropriately modified postal cards.  Two of the cards are notices mailed from the Long Beach Public Library. The postal card shown above is one of those two cards and it was sold at auction number 997 by Siegel Auction Galleries in 2010 for $95,000.  The card was postmarked on March 21, 1921 and it notified Master James Fiske that a reserved book was being held for him until March 24. This particular card was discovered in 1992 by another auction firm.  It was sold previously in 2006 for $50,000.  I have been collecting postal cards that have been sent to and from libraries for many years, and for the most part I have only paid a few dollars for them. About ten years ago at a stamp show I asked a dealer if he had any envelopes or postal cards with a library connection, and he introduced me to another dealer who had one of the Long Beach Public Library postal cards for sale for $30,000.  If I had been willing to take out a second mortgage on my house to buy the card, I could have tripled my money by now.  Of course, I would also be divorced.  

Yale's Library Buildings



 



I was the recent recipient of a copy of the book Yale Library Studies: Library Architecture at Yale edited by Geoffrey Little (Yale University Library, 2009).  The well documented and illustrated publication covers the history of library architecture at Yale over its 300 plus year history. Two buildings in particular stand out from the rest. The first is Sterling Memorial Library which was dedicated in 1931(making this year its 80th anniversary), and the second is the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library completed in 1963. Both libraries are the result of the generosity of Yale alumni. Sterling Memorial Library is named for John W. Sterling, class of 1864, who donated $18 million to Yale upon his death in 1918. I have an 1867 envelope addressed to Sterling in my collection of postal librariana (see above).  In 1951 Yale featured Sterling Memorial Library on the slogan portion of a meter stamp (see above).  The postcard to the left dramatizes the massive nature of Sterling which was built to house 5 million books. The Beinecke Library is named for donors Frederick and Walter Beinecke. It is featured on a first day cover for the 1982 architecture stamp issue (see below). I have an earlier post about Yale Librarian Addison Van Name.

National Library Week 2011, A Storytelling Opportunity

The 2011 theme for National Library Week (April 10-16) is "Create your own story @ your library".  The theme, as it should be, is directed at the general public.  However, this year's National Library Week is also an opportunity for libraries (and the people connected or interested in them) to tell a story or stories about the history of the library. Last year I gave a presentation to the Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries titled  “Turning Your Library’s History into a Public Relations Asset”.  In that presentation I noted that a basic tenet of good library public relations is to seize every possible opportunity to penetrate the consciousness of the general public and community leaders with a positive message about the library. I pointed out that the message that the library has been in the business of changing lives and improving the quality of life for the residents of the community for a long time and that it continues to build on that heritage is a powerful positive message. I then provided some methods for conveying that message. The American Library Association has just published Organizational Storytelling for Librarians: Using Stories for Effective Leadership by Kate Marek. Although I have not read the book, ALA's promotional material leads me to believe that the book would be very supportive of using stories about a library's history to promote the library. Why not resolve to penetrate the consciousness of your community's residents with at least one good story about the library's heritage during this year's National Library Week. Note: this post is being simultaneously published at the website of the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center.

A Communist and the Minneapolis Public Library

On June 12, 1941, Helen Allison Winter, a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America, ran for a seat on the the board of directors of the Minneapolis Public Library (merged with the Hennepin County Library in 2008). She ran on a campaign of "Books Not Bullets", and although she was not elected she received 24,830 votes during a period when anti-communism was prevalent in the United States.  Noted library historian Wayne Wiegand has written an article about Winter's campaign for a position on the public library's board in the Winter 2010-2011 issue of Minnesota History.  Wiegand's article is a good example of how an interesting story about a library's history can be gleaned by delving deeper into its history. It is also noteworthy example of library history being shared with a broader audience than the library history community. An example which other library historians should follow. I have a previous post about the Minneapolis Public Library.  The postcard above shows the Central Library of the Minneapolis Public Library which was in much need of replacement in 1941.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, I thought I would feature one of my first day covers related to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. I have a philatelic exhibit on America's Presidential Libraries & Museums which includes a section on each of the 13 presidential libraries and museums that are administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. This cover which is very ordinary for the most part is special because it has been signed by I. M. Pei, the world famous architect who designed the Kennedy Library. Pei reportedly considers the JFK Library to be the most important commission of his life. The cover has also been signed by John W. McCormack, a Massachusetts Congressman.  The stamp featured on the cover is the 1964 Kennedy memorial stamp. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library has been in the news recently because it is making available online digitized versions of a large portion of its archives. The Library has planned a number of other activities this week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the inauguration.

Furs for Books, Ohio's Coonskin Library

In 1803 the residents of the Town of Ames, Ohio entrusted an accumulation of animal furs to Samuel Brown for the purpose of acquiring a collection of books for the town. Brown traveled to Boston where he sold the furs for $74 and was able to purchase 51 books. These books formed the nucleus of the Western Library Association subscription library which was founded in 1804. The library was commonly referred to as the Coonskin Library.  The library lasted until 1861 after being divided into two separate collections in 1830. After Benjamin Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731, the mother of all subscription libraries, hundreds of these fee based lending libraries were established in the United States.  Most of them faded into obscurity with the onset of the free public library movement.  It is extraordinary that the story of the small Coonskin Library has not only survived all these years but has actually flourished.  If you search for "Coonskin Library" in Google, you will get over 11,000 hits. What is now the Village of Amesville, Ohio is quite proud of the fact it was home to the Coonskin Library.  A Coonskin Library Association (with a very nice website) has been established which operates a Coonskin Library Museum.  Portions of the original collection of books in the Coonskin Library are preserved in the Ohio Historical Society and at Ohio University. An early history of the Coonskin Library has been reprinted in the journal Ohio History. There was considerable controversy about which subscription library could claim to be the first in Ohio (and the Northwest Territory). The Coonskin Library was actually the third such library. In the Winter 1977 issue of the Cincinatti Historical Society Bulletin (available online at the Historical Society's website) Wayne Wiegand provides an overview of the controversy about which library was first.  Bob Avery was the founder and current president of the Coonskin Library Association. The Athens County Public Library (which makes note of its heritage) now serves the residents of Amesville.  Congratulations to Amesville for preserving and celebrating its library heritage.

A Tribute to Ruth Brown on MLK Day

I came across the postcard above which shows the library of the Piney Woods School in Mississippi and it reminded me of Louise S. Robbins' wonderful book The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown: Civil Rights, Censorship and the American Library (University of Oklahoma Press, 2000). After Ruth Brown was dismissed as Director of the Bartlesville (Oklahoma) Public Library in 1950 for the inclusion of certain materials in the library and her involvement with the civil rights movement, she worked for a time as the librarian of Piney Woods School. In Robbins' book she quotes Brown on how she decided to take the position at Piney Woods School: "I had lost my 30 years' position as Public Librarian in a Border Town because I became most actively interested in the Negroes of this town and, unlibrarian like couldn't 'keep my mouth shut' or my actions from showing.  The last straw was probably asking to be served, with two lovely Negro high school teachers, at a drugstore." Brown described her three years at Piney Woods School as "the wonderful experience of my life."  Both Ruth Brown and Louise Robbins have been designated as Oklahoma Library Legends by the Oklahoma Library Association.

Happy 305th Birthday Ben Franklin

It's an interesting coincidence that Benjamin Franklin's 305th birthday falls on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year. It prompted me to look into Franklin's stand on slavery and I came across an interesting item on the National Archives website about this topic. It indicates that although Franklin did not speak out publicly against slavery until late in life, one of his last public acts was to send a petition to Congress seeking an end to the slave trade.

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. Franklin is probably best known in the library community for founding the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731. It was America's first lending library and can lay claim to being the predecessor of the free public library. For a brief period (Dec. 1733-Mar. 1734) Franklin actually served as the librarian for the Library Company.  He also served as its secretary from 1746 to 1757.  Franklin considered the Library Company to be the "Mother of all N. American Subscription Libraries ....". Franklin amassed a large personal library which was written about in The Library of Benjamin Franklin by Edwin Wolf 2nd and Kevin J. Hayes (American Philosophical Society and The Library Company of Philadelphia, 2006).
 
Franklin appeared on the first United States postage stamp (shown above) and has been depicted on more U.S. postage stamps than any other American except George Washington. 

Biblioteksmuseet Boras, Sweden's Library History Museum

Sweden's library history museum, the Biblioteksmuseet in Boras, Sweden, was founded in 1989 under the leadership of the Swedish School of Library and Information Science.  The museum has a video in English on its website which provides an excellent overview of the museum. The museum operates as a non-profit organization funded by membership fees and in-kind contributions. The Board of the Museum includes representatives from the Swedish Library Association and the National Swedish Federation of Adult Educational Associations.  Tommy Olsson is the Director of the Museum and Magnus Torstensson of the Swedish School of Library and Information Science is the museum's historian. In 1994 the museum moved to the former building of the Boras Public Library.  The museum has  permanent exhibits showing travelling libraries, parish libraries, study circle libraries, and public library children's services. It also displays artifacts related to technical services and circulation systems.  It is one of only two library history museums in the world as far as I know.  The other is the Bibliotheekmuseum in Amsterdam. My thoughts on a possible museum/library heritage center in the United States are located HERE.

Vatican Bibliophilately

I've been collecting postage stamps that depict libraries, librarians, and related topics for more than 15 years.  George Eberhart coined the term bibliophilately, and it was his article on library postage stamps that got me hooked on this collecting area. Vatican City has recently issued (Sept. 20, 2010) what might be considered the ultimate bibliophilatelic artifact. It is a stamp that is an actual miniature book which celebrates the reopening of the Vatican Apostolic Library. The miniature book stamp is inserted into a slot on a backing card that shows the Salone Sistino of the Library. The front of the stamp pictures Pope Sixtus V. who had a new building constructed for the Vatican Library in the 16th century. Inside the stamp booklet are six pages which include illustrations and text.  One of the pages is shown here.  An article about the unusual stamp by Denise McCarty was in the January 3, 2011 issue of Linn's Stamp News. I was elated to be able to purchase one for my collection. Two other stamps were issued by Vatican City in connection with the Library's reopening. They depict illustrations from illuminated manuscripts in the Library. The Vatican City book stamp is not the first such stamp of this nature.  On March 9, 2010, The Netherlands issued a miniature book stamp to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Book Week in that country. To read about how I became a collector of bibliophilately and postal librariana click HERE.