On May 8, 1952 two Spaniards from Bilbao, Spain sent a letter to the Los Angeles Public Library in hopes of winning a bet. The bet was based on the envelope (shown above) in which the letter was enclosed. The envelope was addressed only with a drawing, and the bet was that this would be sufficient to get the envelope and enclosed letter delivered to the library. The letter (English on one side and Spanish on the other) requested that the director of the library respond if it arrived safely. The letter did arrive safely, and Harold L. Hamill, City Librarian, sent an acknowledgement of this on May 23, 1952, along with two library brochures. Hamill indicated that the library staff was impressed by the quality of the drawing, and that everyone who had seen it had commented on its interest. I recently acquired the envelope and its contents along with a copy of Hamill's response. They make nice additions to my postal librariana collection. As I noted in a previous post, for several years I featured a monthly "library cover story" on my Library History Buff website. Philatelists refer to envelopes that have been sent through the mail as covers. This is the best library cover story ever.
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