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Envelope Seals for German Libraries

December 6th, 2011

Several years ago I acquired a small collection of envelope seals for German libraries.  Some of the seals are shown above along with an envelope which includes one of the seals. Most of the seals are for German university libraries (universitats bibliotheks), and most of the seals depict a heraldic eagle as the dominate feature. There's an interesting typed message on the envelope. It reads: "Hello, Sam! You may already have these. Eunice." I assume Eunice was referring to the stamps on the envelope and that Sam was a stamp collector which is probably why the envelope has been preserved. "Reichstag" on the seal on the envelope which was mailed in 1925 refers to the parliamentary building in Berlin so the seal was for the parliamentary library (pre Nazi era). I was successful in finding a website with some information on the use of German labels on envelopes. These seals are an example of one the many kinds of librariana that someone interested in libraries can collect.

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Another Piece of Bookmobileana

December 5th, 2011
I recently added another item to my collection of bookmobileana. It is a badge worn by the bookmobile driver of the Oshkosh Public Library in Wisconsin.  The bookmobile service for the Oshkosh Public Library was discontinued in 2007 due to budget constraints. Based on the fastener on back of the badge, I think it was probably worn on the driver's hat. The vehicle shown on the badge appears to be a bus. It is likely that the company that made the badge supplied badges to bus drivers and they used the same basic design for the bookmobile badge. Not something you come across everyday.

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Happy 150th Birthday Electra Doren, Dayton Librarian

December 4th, 2011
December is a big month for significant birthdays for former library leaders. Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Electra Collins Doren whose claim to fame rests primarily with her leadership of the Dayton (OH) Public Library. She has been inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame and the Ohio Library Hall of Fame.  She has also been inducted into the Miami Valley Walk of Fame. Doren started her career at the Dayton Public Library in 1879 when she was only 18 years old. She became director of the library in 1897. She left Dayton to help start the library school at Case Western in 1905, but returned to Dayton where she was reappointed head librarian in 1913. Kudos to the Dayton Public Library for naming a branch library in her honor and for noting her contribution to outreach services on its website. There's a nice write up about Doren in the Dictionary of American Library Biography (Libraries Unlimited, 1978) by Robert E. Kingery.

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Happy 135th Birthday George B. Utley

December 3rd, 2011

Today is the 135th anniversary of the birth of George Burwell Utley (1876-1946) who served as administrator of several library organizations including the American Library Association (ALA) from 1911 to 1920. Utley was also elected President of ALA in 1922-23. Prior to his service at ALA he was Director of the Jacksonville (FL) Public Library and after his service at ALA he served as Librarian of the Newberry Library in Chicago. During his tenure at ALA the organization was located in the Chicago Public Library, but it was temporarily relocated to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. from 1917 to 1919. This was done so that Utley could serve simultaneously as Executive Secretary of ALA's Library War Service which was under the overall direction of Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam. He was at the Newberry Library from 1920 until his retirement in 1942. The envelope shown above documents Utley's move back to Chicago after his work at the Library of Congress. As a stamp collector Utley would have appreciated this piece of postal librariana.

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ALA’s WWI Library Sun Parlor in Coblenz, Germany

December 2nd, 2011

One of my library postcard collecting interests is postcards that the American Library Association produced to promote its Library War Service during World War I. Most of my postcards depict camp and hospital libraries in the United States. Postcards showing Library War Service activities in Germany and France are rare. I was pleased to add a postcard of ALA's library in Coblenz, Germany (shown above) to my collection even though its not in great shape. It is unused. The postcard depicts the sun parlor of the library, and one of the captions reads, "For men off duty, the sun parlor in the American Library at Coblenz furnishes a comfortable place to look over the newspapers from home."  Another caption reads, "The American Library Association is maintaining a Library at Coblenz, all service being free to the entire personnel of the Army of Occupation." The postcard shows a large rack of newspapers in the background and three soldiers engaged in reading.

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