America's Library - The Library of Congress

I've mentioned my philatelic exhibit about the Library of Congress which I titled "America's Library - The Library of Congress&...

My Thomas S. Shaw Collection of Covers and Correspondence

A few years ago I acquired a collection of several dozen covers (envelopes) and letters mailed to Thomas S. Shaw, a longtime Library of Cong...

NYPL's Bldg. at 5th Ave. & 42nd St. on Postcards

I thought I would do one more post on the New York Public Library's building located at 5th Ave. & 42nd St. since this is the actual...

Virginia Haviland (1911-1988)

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Virginia Haviland, world renown children's literature proponent and authority. According ...

Library Magnets

Almost any gift store in a tourist area or at a tourist attraction have souvenir magnets for sale.  They're a reasonably priced memento ...

NYPL Stacks

The dramatic depiction of the stack area of the New York Public Library building located at 5th Ave. & 42nd St. which is shown above app...

The New York Public Library on Stamps

This month the New York Public Library is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the dedication of its iconic building at 5th Avenue & 42n...

Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield's (MA) Public Library

The Berkshire Athenaeum is the public library for Pittsfield, MA, and this year it is celebrating its 140th anniversary.  The Athenaeum was...

What Middletown Read

High on the list policies promoted by the American Library Association (ALA) are those that protect the privacy of library users. Due to the...

Josephus Larned, Pioneer Buffalo Librarian

The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library has a rich history that involved a number of outstanding librarians. I have written previously...

Thoreau's Trip West

May 11 will be the sesquicentennial of the start of Henry David Thoreau's 3,000 mile plus trip from Concord, Massachusetts to Minnesota ...

Early Railroad Libraries

At last year's Library History Seminar XII I attended a very interesting presentation on the Employees' Free Circulating Library of...

Fire - Enemy of Books

There is a delightful book titled The Enemies of Books by William Blades (Trubner, London, 1880, multiple editions) which covers multiple th...

Library Postcard Humor

As I have mentioned previously on this blog, library postcards are one of my collecting interests. Because there are thousands of library p...

Books for Soldiers and Sailors in the Civil War

The sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War is being celebrated this year. The  work of the American Library Association to provide ...