October 18th, 2011 by Larry T. Nix
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Bookplate collectors often remove bookplates from books for their collections. As a very modest collector of bookplates from institutional libraries, I have sometimes found that the book and its bookplate are more desirable if they remain together. In my collection I have an elaborate bookplate for the Free Library of Union Springs, NY which is in the book The Story of Books by Gertrude B. Rawlings (D. Appleton & Co., NY, 1901). I think the two of them are a nice combination. The bookplate indicates the book was given in memory of Curtis Strong Chittenden and Caroline Young Peterson. Peterson was from Union Springs. There is a date on the bookplate of May 16, 1902. The book is part of a series called "The Library of Useful Stories". The book is only four inches by six inches in size and the bookplate is almost as large as the book. The Free Library of Union Springs was founded in 1898 and was renamed the Springport Free Library in 1902.
October 13th, 2011 by Larry T. Nix
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| Envelope showing one of the first stamps of the United Nations |
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| Special event envelope for dedication of Hammarskjold Library |
There are two upcoming anniversaries related to the United Nations that are noteworthy. The first is the 60th anniversary of the first issue of postage stamps by the United Nations in New York which occurs on October 24th. The second is the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the UN Dag Hammarskjold Library in New York which occurs on November 16th. Both of these anniversaries have relevance to my interest in postal librariana. The first envelope shown above is a first day cover for one of the stamps in the first group of stamps issued by the UN. That stamp depicts the large Secretariat Building of the United Nations and a smaller building next to it which served as the library from 1951 to 1959. The building which housed the library was referred to as the "Manhattan Building". The second cover shown above is a special event cover for the dedication of the Dag Hammarskjold Library which replaced the previous building which was torn down. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold had already sent out the invitation to the dedication of the new library building when he was killed in an airplane crash in 1961. The decision to name the library for him occurred after his death. The Hammarskjold Library appears on more postage stamps than any other library in the world. If you visit the United Nations in New York you can have your own personalized stamp created. I did this on a visit and a sheet of my personalized stamps is shown below. The sheet has a nice image of the Hammarskjold Library. It is the building at the bottom of the UN complex.
October 12th, 2011 by Larry T. Nix
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| Envelope with label provided by Royal Naval War Libraries |
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Back flap of RNWL label
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| Envelope mailed by Univ. of WI Library in 1940 |
It is difficult to imagine the hardships that the people of Great Britain endured during World War II. One small indication of the difficulty of this period is shown by two envelopes in my postal librariana collection. They both have labels that have been pasted over a previously used envelope so that they can be reused. The first envelope has a label that was provided by the Royal Naval War Libraries, a wartime charitable organization that provided books to service men and women. These "Economy Labels" could be purchased from the Royal Naval War Libraries as shown by the back flap of the label. The second envelope was originally mailed to the Economic and Statistics Section of the Bank of England by the Library of the University of Wisconsin - Madison (the first address is visible under the label) in 1940. It has been censored by Examiner 5086. The top part of the label has been removed to reveal that it was originally mailed by the UW Library.
October 11th, 2011 by Larry T. Nix
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Stereoviews are double images of a scene on a card that when viewed with a stereoscope appear to be three dimensional or in 3D. Several decades before libraries appeared on picture postcards they could be viewed on stereoviews. Although the period when stereoviews were available ran from the 1850s up to World War I, the "Golden Age of Stereoviews" was the 1860s and 70s. I've only collected a few library stereoviews, but I recently acquired a very interesting one. It depicts the interior of the Library of Congress when it was located in the Capitol. The back of the card indicates that it was "Entered according to Act of Congress, A.D. 1866, by G. G. Wakely, in the District Court of Washington, D.C.". The Library of Congress did not take over the administration of copyright until 1870. Prior to that copyright was registered in the U.S. District Courts. The neat thing about this stereoview is that it depicts both library users and library staff members. There is also an interesting piece of furniture in the library that separates the staff work area (with books piled high) from the rest of the library space. The space in the Capitol designated for the Library of Congress was greatly enhanced following a disastrous fire on Dec. 24, 1851. When the Library reopened on Aug. 23, 1853 it was considered to be "the largest room made of iron in the world." Source: For Congress and the Nation, A Chronological History of the Library of Congress by John Y. Cole (Library of Congress, 1979).
