When I gave my recent postcard presentation for the Humboldt County Historical Society I relied on the collections of Dr. Jack Irvine, Ann Hunt, and Steve Lazar. At the time I did not have a personal collection, although now I do. I own one (1) card. This means I was able to give the presentation only because I had access to three private collections that are somewhat larger than my own. About 150 people attended the event and everybody seemed to enjoy it.
I think that Steve Lazar's plan to make available scans of local postcards is a wonderful way to allow researchers, authors, presenters, and other interested parties access to these images that capture the county's history and scenery. By making scans of the cards and then having the scans available on the web, Steve allows collectors to have the best of both worlds--they can keep the cards in their own collections but share the scans of them with others
I know that the HSU Library now has at least one extensive donated collection and that other institutions, such as the Humboldt County Historical Society, have postcard images scattered throughout their photo collections. Wouldn't it be great if we could combine scans from these sources with those from private collections into a single, publicly available set?
I'd like to invite interested collectors and archivists to meet and discuss how we could best bring this about. I'd also like to extend a special invitation to Leon Warmurth to participate. Leon was quoted as saying that his collection is "nothing special" but I believe he is being way too modest. In fact, I'm willing to bet that we could do another postcard presentation featuring his cards exclusively and that it would be terrific. If you're interested, Leon, let me know.
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Posted by
Jerry Rohde
on 02/23/2011 at 9:59 AM
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Re: “Postcard Kings”
When I gave my recent postcard presentation for the Humboldt County Historical Society I relied on the collections of Dr. Jack Irvine, Ann Hunt, and Steve Lazar. At the time I did not have a personal collection, although now I do. I own one (1) card. This means I was able to give the presentation only because I had access to three private collections that are somewhat larger than my own. About 150 people attended the event and everybody seemed to enjoy it. I think that Steve Lazar's plan to make available scans of local postcards is a wonderful way to allow researchers, authors, presenters, and other interested parties access to these images that capture the county's history and scenery. By making scans of the cards and then having the scans available on the web, Steve allows collectors to have the best of both worlds--they can keep the cards in their own collections but share the scans of them with others I know that the HSU Library now has at least one extensive donated collection and that other institutions, such as the Humboldt County Historical Society, have postcard images scattered throughout their photo collections. Wouldn't it be great if we could combine scans from these sources with those from private collections into a single, publicly available set? I'd like to invite interested collectors and archivists to meet and discuss how we could best bring this about. I'd also like to extend a special invitation to Leon Warmurth to participate. Leon was quoted as saying that his collection is "nothing special" but I believe he is being way too modest. In fact, I'm willing to bet that we could do another postcard presentation featuring his cards exclusively and that it would be terrific. If you're interested, Leon, let me know.