As a proponent of a library history museum, my adrenalin got going pretty good when I came across an historic book wagon for sale on eBay. The seller is offering it for a "Buy it now" price of $15,000, but is willing to consider a lesser offer. If I only had a spare $15,000 and space to store it. According to the seller on eBay, the book wagon dates to the 1920s and was on display in Vancouver, British Columbia for the 1986 World Expo. Mary L. Titcomb, the Librarian of the Washington County Free Library, sent out the first book wagon in the United States in Hagerstown, Maryland in April, 1905. Titcomb designed the book wagon which had space for 200 books on the outside of the wagon and storage space for more books on the inside. I have a "Tribute to the Bookmobile" on the Library History Buff website.
Addendum: On January 16 the book wagon was relisted for a period of up to 29 days, so you may still have time to purchase this great item and preserve a piece of library history.
The postal card above may be the second oldest overdue notice in existence (click here to see the oldest). It was mailed to a student by the Corresponding Secretary of the Parthenon Literary Society at West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV) in May of 1874. College literary societies with a library were fairly common in 18th and 19th century American academic institutions. I wrote about two such societies at Dartmouth College in an earlier post. There's a good article about these literary societies in Wikipedia. Literary societies sometimes preceded fraternities on college campuses and this was the case at West Virginia University (click here for more about this). The overdue notice which is entirely handwritten reads as follows: "Mr. Shields you are charged on the Library book of The Parthenon Literary Society with a book entitled 'American Family in Germany' and by action of the Society it becomes my duty to inform you that the book must be returned or its equivalent as soon as possible." Mr. Shields had evidently forgotten to return the book before going home to Charleston, WV for the summer.
Walter Lewis Brown (1861-1931) played a significant role in the development of the Buffalo Public Library, now the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Today (January 4) is the 150th anniversary of his birth. Brown served as President of the American Library Association in 1916-1917 when ALA, like the rest of America, was preparing for war. He is included in the Dictionary of American Library Biography (Libraries Unlimited, 1978) which has an entry written by Paul M. Rooney. When I write these significant birthday posts for the blog, it is always nice to have a piece of related ephemera to display. That has been easy with Brown and the Buffalo Public Library since I have a number of such items in my collection. The bookplate shown here includes the information that the Young Men's Association of Buffalo, a subscription library, which preceded the Buffalo Public Library was established in 1836. According to Rooney, Brown began his library career in 1877 at the age of 16 by working at the Young Men's Association Library. After a 5 year stint with the Association Library, he worked for a local bookseller. He rejoined the library in 1897, now called the Buffalo Library. In that same year the library transitioned to a free public library under the name Buffalo Public Library. This is also reflected on the bookplate. Initially Brown served as the vice-librarian under Henry Livingston Elmendorf. I'm familiar with Elmendorf because he married Theresa West, Librarian of the Milwaukee Public Library and the first woman President of the American Library Association. When Henry Elmendorf died in 1906, Brown became Librarian, a post he held until his death in 1931. Brown served as President of the New York Library Association in 1906. Theresa West Elmendorf became vice-librarian under Brown. A nice history of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is located HERE.
"Cover" is a philatelic term for an envelope, postal card, or similar postal artifact that has been sent through the mail (or is intended to be sent through the mail). Philatelist often say every cover has a story. I collect covers related to libraries, and I have found that these covers often have interesting stories that relate both to library history and postal history. On the home page of the Library History Buff website I included a library cover story for each month during the four year period 2007-2010 for a total of 48 library cover stories. I have archived the cover stories and links to all of the library cover stories are below. When I created the Library History Buff blog in 2008 I began putting these stories on the blog also. I have realized that the blog is a more appropriate venue for these stories so I have decided to eliminate this feature on the Library History Buff website. My first library cover story in January 2007 was about the first day cover for the 1982 "America's Libraries" stamp in combination with the 1982 Library of Congress stamp. It was signed by Betty Stone, ALA President, and Daniel Boorstin, Librarian of Congress. Library covers and library stamps are both included in category which I call "postal librariana".
Today is the 180th anniversary of the birth of Justin Winsor (1831-1897), President of the American Library Association from its founding in 1876 until 1885 and later in 1897. Although not trained in librarianship when he became Superintendent of the Boston Public Library in 1868, he became the foremost American librarian of his time. He left the Boston Public Library in 1877 to become Librarian of Harvard College where he served until his death in 1897. The postal card above was signed by Winsor on January 3, 1876, 135 years ago tomorrow. It is the acknowledgement of a gift of two copies of a pamphlet. ALA's Library History Round Table awards the Justin Winsor Prize for Library History Essay in Winsor's honor. A listing of ALA's past presidents can be found HERE.
