Postcards, Periodicals, and Greetings from Estonia

Happy Fourth of July! Appropriately, the early 20th century postcard collection I’ve begun processing this week has its fair share from the US of A, along with what I’ve determined to be one postcard from what is now the capitol of Estonia. No I'm not spending the holiday weekend in Eastern Europe, but if I had sometime around the turn of the century, I could have sent a postcard much like the one in our collection. I’m putting my archives training to good use (hopefully) and creating a finding aid for a small postcard collection currently housed in the rare books room of the Jean Outland Chrysler Library. The origins of the collection are a bit mysterious, but that won’t keep us from arranging and describing it to provide access for researchers interested in late 19th and early 20th century postcards. The collection is truly a global one, with landscapes, cityscapes, art, and architecture from more than a dozen countries. Most of the postcards are blank, but represent a useful resource for both those interested in postcard manufacture and use and those interested in the scenes they depict. The bulk of the collection is art reproductions and scenic locales so I’m currently arranging the collection into series based on geography and, in the case of the art postcards, Library of Congress classification. The finding aid won’t describe individual postcards, but will provide an overview of the collection and valuable access points to what could otherwise be an overwhelming jumble.

This week I also worked on cataloging art periodicals. In addition to our diverse current periodical subscriptions, the library also holds donated and rare materials and specific issues related to museum collections and shows. More dynamic than single or even multi-volume monographs, periodicals present unique cataloging challenges. Periodicals often change names, absorb other serials, change the frequency of distribution, and shift the place of publication. Cataloger becomes detective!

Finally, a quick shout-out to our new glass door. Museum staff and visitors can now see the friendly faces waiting for them at the reference desk as they enter the reading room. What once appeared to be a particularly foreboding vault door is now a lot more inviting. It may seem like a small detail, but, especially in the case of museum visitors, the new door sends the message that they’re welcome at the library.

--John Curtis, Cataloging Fellow