Library of Congress Exhibit

April is the month that we celebrate National Library Week . This year it is April 14 -20. I'm helping to celebrate this event with an e...

Evolution of Metal Bookstacks

Metal bookstacks are in the news in New York. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has an exhibit on display featuring the works of F...

A Visit to the St. Louis Public Library

For a library history buff, it doesn't get much better than a visit to the newly renovated Central Library of the St. Louis Public Libr...

Women on Library Postcards

Library, Washington Normal School, Ellensburg, WA Library, Baptist Missionary Training School, Chicago Guthrie (OK) Carnegie Library I'v...

Books in Chains

Hereford Cathedral Chained Library Books in Chains is the title of a book originally published in London in 1892 that contains the writings...

German POW Camp Libraries in WWI

    I have a special interest in military libraries during wartime. Most of the items in my collection on this topic are about U.S. librarie...

Postcard Depicting Cats in the Library

This delightful postcard has a caption in German which reads "Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual!". This translates in English to ...

Libraries in the Snow on Postcards

 Baker Library, Dartmouth College I t's been a rough winter in many parts of the country this year. I'm sure that a few pictures h...

CA State Library Promotes Law Dept. with Postcard

The California State Library used a picture postcard (see above) to promote its Law Department in the period around the early 1920s. The pos...

Library Workers Association, 1920

In my collection I have Vol. 1, No. 1 of the Journal of The Library Workers Association which is dated May, 1920. The Library Workers Assoc...

Unusual Postcard of Huntington (IN) Public Library

This postcard of the Carnegie Library building in Huntington, Indiana caught my attention for obvious reasons. I haven't seen a postcard...

John Cotton Dana's Tenure in Springfield, MA

    John Cotton Dana ((1856-1929) was one of our profession's greatest librarians and humorists (see previous blog post ). Dana began h...

Woburn (MA) Public Library and Henry Hobson Richardson

The Woburn Public Library in Woburn, MA is housed in one of the most architecturally distinctive buildings in the United States. It was des...

Gaylord Bros and Book Repair

Whenever I have the chance I acquire early catalogs of library supply companies. Among the catalogs in my collection are several from Gaylor...

Library Postcard Message 1944, Wesleyan University

As I have indicated before I appreciate library postcards which have been sent with a message that relates to the library shown on the post...

Iowa's Masonic Library

Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organization with a membership of approximately four million men including two million in the United S...

Patrick Magruder and the Burning of the Library of Congress

 Patrick Magruder (1768-1819) was the second Librarian of Congress and served in that capacity from 1807-1815. He served both as the Clerk o...

For SEX, See the Librarian

If you haven't read Jeanette C. Smith's The Laughing Librarian: A History of American Library Humor (McFarland, 2012), you're m...

50 Years of Working in Libraries

This month marks a significant personal anniversary for me. Fifty years ago this month I took a job at the Nashville (TN) Public Library ( ...

George Washington's Inauguration and the New York Society Library

It is inauguration day in our Nation's Capital so I thought it would be a good opportunity to highlight a photograph in my collection. I...

Early Harvard College Library Bookplate

The design of the bookplate shown here was used by the Harvard College Library from the 1760s through the first part of the 19th century. Th...

Postmaster Burleson's Magazines and the ALA Library War Service

During World War I Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson implemented a program that allowed used magazines from individuals to be placed in...

Port Elizabeth (South Africa) Library Postcard, 1905

American Libraries Direct has been featuring "Great Libraries of the World" for more than a year (in one of the sidebar sections)...

Andrew Carnegie and a Library Fire in Seattle

There was nothing like a fire to motivate Andrew Carnegie to donate money for a library building. On the morning of New Year's Day in 19...

Postcard Promoting Holdrege, NE and its Public Library

Multi-view postcards that depict prominent community buildings often include the public library. The one above for Holdrege, Nebraska is an ...

100 Years of Parcel Post

Since today marks the 100th anniversary of the provision of parcel post by the U.S. Post Office Department (now the United States Postal Se...