For some strange reason I have a plethora of cards from Kansas, but not many from Nebraska.
What is striking is the number of monochrome cards with a cream colored sky and red caption.
Their only identification is 'Black and White' in the back divider. I believe the 'Commercialchrome'
post cards are from the same publisher.
(Update: Curt Teich brands)
No slight meant to anyone in Nebraska, but your cards were lost on the Other Carnegie Libraries page, and there are too few to merit another page.
In 1985, Allen Gardiner had his excellent resource The Carnegie Legacy in Kansas published by the Kansas State Library. Obviously, you can't walk into Borders and get a copy, so Mr. Gardiner's work is available online at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/carnegie/intro.html.
1906 Carnegie grant. Replaced 1980: fate unknown.
The library's history is on an Arkansas City website. Currently, the library is housed in the former post office building. It seems strange that a post office in ca.12,000 person town is more appropriately sized for its library.
This card was sold by S.H. Kress. The library is clearly labeled:
PUBLIC LIBRARY
Presented to the people
19 of Arkansas City by 07
ANDREW CARNEGIE
I guess you have to extrapolate a little for the meaning.
Dedicated 1906: sometime along the way, the tower was removed, essentially destroying the Romanesque appearance. (Not many Carnegie libraries were of this 19th century style.)
The library is still in use.
(L) Entire back card produced shortly after the building's
completion and mailed in 1906.
(R) The tinted card postdates 1907.
Not just a mall in Rockford, Illinois.
1912 grant: opened 1913. Still in use with very limited hours.
Another utilitarian library, but the windows are rather attractive.
This postcard seems to confirm the hypothesis that 'Black and White' was another Curt Teich brand, as this 1929 card has 'C.T. American Art Black and White' written in the center divider on the reverse side.
Late 1909 grant. Still in use.
Utilitarian building that is rather ochre in
color.
Commercialchrome card.
Grant from 1907: building completed 1909. Building outgrown by 1969 and eventually replaced. Notice the stone blockwork which presages the 1950s, when lannon stone facings reached a near-craze in the Milwaukee, and to a lesser extent, the Chicago suburbs.
Card mailed in 1925. Someone in the Commercialchrome retouch department thought this winter shot needed to feature willows and roses.
Gardiner calls this 1905-7 building 'Free Style' or 'Free Eclectic Style.'
I call it the spiffiest use of cement west of Wright's Unity Temple. I haven't seen a post-1937 picture: Dodge City snagged a WPA project to build an addition.
This is a Fred Harvey card. I imagine there were parts of the West where the library was the most exciting structure.
Built in 1906, after the persistent Mrs. Amanda Wicks, librarian, decided in 1901 to pursue a Carnegie grant. Building replaced in 1979, and now houses the Lyon County Historical Museum. Furthermore, it is on the National Register of Historic Places.
(L) Fred Harvey card with divided back. Note the total lack of landscaping.
(R) E.C. Kropp card, never postally used.
1901 Carnegie grant: built in 1902. Second Renaissance Revival building on National Register of Historic Places.
Apparently this building is still in use.
This sepia monochrome card by an unknown publisher was mailed in 1910.
1909 grant.
Built in 1913. Replaced in 1975. Now the Carnegie Arts Center.
Per Gardiner, the special 1909 election that brought it into existence was one in which women were allowed to vote. Goodland was another of those towns that didn't want to take 'tainted' money.
C.T. Blue Sky card from 1935.
1906 grant: 1908 Eclectic Neoclassical building.
Does Eclectic = shoddy roof? Persistent water damage to the second floor doomed this Carnegie building in 1963. There must have been a lot of pondering going on, because it took until 1971 until its demolition.
Commercialchrome card was used as a salesman's record. In 1923, 2000 cost $6.00.
Opened 1904. In 1946, became the Union Labor Temple and the library moved to a new building.
You can't help but wonder what monstrosity was cropped from the left side of the photograph.
Opened 1907. Air conditioned 1956 (hey, it's important to me!). Still in use.
Beautiful 'LITHO-CHROME' card printed in Germany for the South-West News Company, Kansas City, Mo. Never postally used, it must date before 1914.
1906 - 1966
Slightly unusual design.
Gardiner states that it was built of concrete blocks from a local cement factory.
Perhaps that savings enabled it to be large for the size of its community. Still, it was outmoded by 1965.
Card sent 1912 by Ina C., who was 'tatting a streak.'
Huron Park and Public Library
ca. 1902
This was a Carnegie library, according to
a Kansas City (KS) Public Schools site.
It was torn down in 1958. The aforementioned site shows another postcard view of the building
and a photograph of another KC library, the Argentine Carnegie Library.
Opened 1904. Replaced 1972.
Serves as the Lawrence Arts Center, and is on the National
Register of Historic Places.
Sepia-toned German card sent in 1908.
September 24 postmark combined with a Happy New Year message leads me to believe that this was used to celebrate the Jewish New Year.
1900 grant. Replaced 1987. Current use unknown.
Isn't this an especially dignified building? The placement of the white border leaves an ambiguity whether the library was built on a hill, or the photographer found a really unusual angle.
German 'Litho-Chrome' card in really poor condition.
Grant received 1903. Building built in 1904, and it now houses the County Attorney's office.
It's a lumpy building, but in an unnatural fashion.
Probably it's built of concrete blocks, but possibly of sandstone or limestone.
(L) Credit for the card is given to Guy Varney of Manhattan. This is a weird card that is
tinted distinctly green in addition to the stylish cropping.
That didn't improve it enough to use a color scan.
(R) This is an ugly card, too. Evidently the German retouchers had never seen an American flag. 10 stars?
The pole apparently is real: ropes lead from the front wall to it.
Library's history detailed on a Kansas site. From 1903 to 1973 it was the city's library: in 1973, its deed was given to the Harvey County Historical Society. Today it houses that entity.
Library founded in 1906 and received a late 1907 grant. Built in 1911. Replaced and serves as offices.
Built 1903; still in use.
(L) Another beautiful German 'LITHO-CHROME' card made for the South-West News Company, Kansas City, Mo.
(R) A Curt Teich American Art card, with the liberty of an orange and yellow
striped awning. How jaunty!
Completed in 1909.
Please visit Gardiner's site for an architectural description.
No longer in use, there are plans to renovate the building into an arts center. Actually, there's a lot of info on this beautiful building online.
Parsons has the first library blog I've run across in the course of this research.
Opened in 1914, using the same plan as Galena, IL Carnegie building.
I see more differences than just the deletion of the tile roof.
Unevenly divided back, from the Auburn Post Card Co. of Auburn, Indiana.
Not all Carnegie Libraries were public institutions. This Topeka, KS Carnegie building was part of the campus of Washburn College, now Washburn University. Amusingly, its team mascot is the Ichabod.
Card dates from sometime after 1907.
Information from Gardiner.
This Carnegie building was finished in 1915, and shortly thereafter, the librarian, Miss Katherine Cossitt, resigned in protest over furniture and interior decoration issues. She also found faults in the building's construction.
As far as I know, the Beaux Arts building is still standing.
Information from Gardiner.
Carnegie grant, 1902. City dawdled until 1912. Building opened, 1913. Replaced sometime after 1985: the building has been replaced.
The postcard was mailed in October, 1913. The building has rather a grand entryway, probably more suited to a theater.
Information from Gardiner.
Speedy grant approval (application, January 10, 1910; approval, January 31, 1910).
This card features the twin towers that render it Romanesque Lite in my opinion. Someone got a little tetchy with them after 1915, the date of the card, because the whole entry area was stripped off the building. Their bad.
The reverse of this card features the mysterious 'Sky-Tint' brand and the logo for the Commercial Colortype Company of Chicago.
Main information source:
Nebraska Public Library Founding Dates.
More library photos at
Nebraska Memories.
Public Library and Central School, Beatrice, Nebr.
Card postmarked 1915.
Confirmed as a 1904 Carnegie library, but don't discount the
ladies of the WCTU.
In 1881, they began to fund the library founded
by Clara Colby in 1873.
Their rather basic website gives no indication whether the (1902) Carnegie library is still in use.
Ditto for (1904) Holdrege.
1903 grant.
Library replaced: demolished in 1973.
I'm always taken aback by postcards that have a quite state-of-the-art library building, and ...
a dirt street. I also notice screens on the windows. The attractive card bears
an unevenly divided back, but no publisher's information.
'Old Main,' 1902-1960.
Other Lincoln
Carnegie libraries included those of Havelock, University Place, and
College View; all towns annexed to Lincoln in the 1930s.
The fifth was the Northeast branch, built 1909 and in use until
1982. This is one of the few Carnegie buildings that was
moved.
(L) Entire back, published by the Lincoln Book Store.
(R) Postmarked 1914. City (Carnegie) Library. Divided back,
'Superior Quality, Famous Throughout the World.'
Undoubtedly.
However, the foliage in the summer photograph seriously obscures the entrance.
1910 Carnegie grant. C.T. Photocrom card (A.28770).
Ethereal, yet firmly rooted,
this Carnegie Library was designed by
John P. Eisentraut and built in 1907. Apparently still in use.
In 1924, Carolyn S. wrote:
Having a wonderful time out here. Every day is perfect, only a little too warm a
103 in the shade.
From a 1911 Carnegie grant.
Plaque reads, 'Gift of A. Carnegie 1910.'
This building is one that rather grows on you. I don't know how they combined Deco,
Prairie, and Craftsman styles (especially when Deco hadn't been coined as a style), but the
resulting library must have given Carnegie a warm feeling in his frugal heart.
Card mailed in 1914.
Asymmetric, Prairie-style building, built courtesy of a 1911 grant. The card has 1915 written on the back.
Replaced.
© 2003 - 9 Judy Aulik
Split from Other Carnegie Libraries on 11 November 2006.
Updated 15 July 2009.
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