As I have found more cards from Missouri, especially, I have divided Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas from the rest of the 'other' Carnegie Libraries.
Missouri seems to be the hardest state so far for me to find references on Carnegie libraries. Information is either absent (Maryville) or contradictory (St. Louis branch libraries).
Currently known as the Aurora Branch of the Barry-Lawrence Library.
Carnegie grant dates from 1909.
According to the information about Aurora from the
LASR Net page, it was built in 1917-18 and
has been remodeled since.
Both sites show the current configuration, but only the latter has
a very strange picture that looks as if a large, baby-blue van is flying through
the air, aiming at the entrance.
Aurora has the distinction as the only small city I am aware of that made road maps (Mid-West Map Company) and postcards (MWM Dexter, its successor).
1900 Carnegie grant.
From the internal pictures on the Missouri River Regional Library website, I am deducing that this building has either been replaced or extremely remodeled.
The card is by Curt Teich and probably dates from the early 1920s.
1901 Carnegie grant.
The Van Nuy Railroad News Co. of Kansas City, had a differently deranged set of color values than did Elite Postcard (Sedalia, below).
The library has been replaced since.
As I was trying to learn Joplin Carnegie Library's fate, I discovered an amazing treasure trove of Joplin library postcards at Virtually Missouri. Joplin Public Library also hosts a host of digitized postcards.
The card claims that this is a Carnegie building, but Bobinski does not list it as such. It appears to no longer be in use. Needs are served by the Mid-Continent Public Library.
Every picture tells a story.
(And this one is interesting.)
The card on the left was in a category of miscellaneous RPPC at a show.
Looking at it, I felt certain it was of a library, but I didn't think it was
of a Carnegie building. Months later, I picked up the righthand card, along with several other
library cards. As I was scanning and sorting the purchases, I thought the C.T.
American Art postcard looked familiar. Then the lightbulb came on.
It was the same library I'd seen months earlier.
(L) Mailed 1908. Mainly illegible postmark, from ?na, MO in 1908.
(R) Never mailed but distributed by Todd & Reid's Pharmacy, of Louisiana.
The Carnegie grant came in 1902. The library was built in 1905, and according to the Waymarking website, is still in use.
1903 Carnegie grant.
The question "How are you and Dewey?" can have a new scope of meaning
on a library postcard. This one was sent in 1912, but appears to date from
several years earlier.
In hand, clearly the postcard is captioned as a Carnegie library; yet, the library shown on the library's website is of the same era and is significantly larger.
1902 Carnegie grant.
An especially fine touch is the stained glass window over the entry.
On the lefthand card there seems to be a second leaded window in a fishscale
or diamond pattern. Nice to know this building is still in use
and
looking quite dapper. It's now a branch of the
Little Dixie Regional Library
System.
The righthand card was sent in 1907.
1901 Carnegie grant. Built in 1902, as was the Massachusetts St. Branch.
This is a case where the library has a first-rate web site with all the history you could ever want.
In contrast is this hideous card. Written around the border (mainly cropped) is the message,
'Kindly send me a postal in return,' with the sender's name and address. I bet the recipient
was thrilled to get this little postal disaster.
Actually, it wasn't any beauty beforehand, with off-register red and coarse benday screening.
Lovely Phostint card by Detroit Publishing. Most of the library Phostints are of Boston or St. Louis.
The sight of rows upon rows of card catalogues is rapidly disappearing from America's libraries.
(Chicago's Newberry Library still has them, however.) How many people remember the odd rules
that had to be followed to type a catalog card?
By the way, this room is now a reference/genealogy room.
1907 Carnegie building, designed by Cass Gilbert. Modeled on
The New York City Public library, and in turn served
as the model for Detroit's main library, according to Van Slyck.
The card is postmarked
1912. The library is most emphatically in use. A 2004 visit saw
the library swarming with people, and most were using books.
Nice atmosphere.
The Cabanne branch is located in a 1908 Carnegie building. However, there's some evidence that the building featured on the S.H. Knox card may not be the correct building. The link to a photo of a different library building is on the bottom of the linked page.
The branch still exists.
Missouri's first (1899) Carnegie Library.
Sedalia's card comes from that peculiar wackyland of the Elite Postcard Co. of Kansas City, where all libraries face east to display a lurid sunset behind.
Card is postmarked 1912. With a divided back, it could be as much as five years older.
Similar to Sedalia's Carnegie building, especially apparent in the left hand card.
Adding to the confusion
is that fact that Springfield, Missouri does not appear in Bobinski's
1969 list of Carnegie grants. However, one of the
library's
web pages confirms that construction on the Carnegie building began in late 1903.
The right hand card is by Curt Teich.
There are two good sources for Oklahoma/Indian Territory
Carnegie library history:
Carnegie Libraries.
Oklahoma's Carnegie Libraries by Booker and Finchum.
E.C. Kropp card, never postally used. I believe those are canna lilies out front.
Built 1904: razed. E.C. Kropp post card postdates 1907.
Second public library in the Indian Territory (1901).
This is a charming card from the Raphael Tuck and Sons' 'Our Belles' series. F.B. Little and Co. were the publishers in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The style of this card accentuates that Guthrie's Carnegie Library was built before statehood.
Built in 1916, on the National Register of Historic Places, this building no longer functions as a library. It has unusual architecture that somehow looks distinctly Western.
One of the prettier E.C. Kropp cards.
First public library in the Indian Territory (1899).
With a pre-statehood cancellation, this H.H. Clarke card (right) features an unusual Carnegie Library with a Grecian-style entrance. Its left-hand side is similar to that of Waukesha, Wisconsin's Carnegie Library.
I have only a few Texas cards. The general scarcity could have
its roots in the number of defaults on the agreements for community
support alluded to in the handy site,
Handbook of Texas Online.
More cards exist, and I must
direct you to another excellent site,
Texas Escapes, to see cards and photos.
A 1908 Carnegie grant, obtained by the City Federations of Women's Clubs, helped fund this 1909 building which was torn down in 1958.
Finding additional details has been difficult. Supposedly a book, Report of a survey of Carnegie Library, Abilene, Texas, by Schenk, exists, but I haven't gotten a copy yet.
Grant dates from 1903.
Card published by Geo. A. Gray, Belton, Texas and
made in the U.S.A. Quality is quite inferior to the
German cards of the times, but the postmark in the sky does not help matters.
Mailed in 1910.
Today the Carnegie building is in use as a museum.
1903 grant: currently a museum.
Built 1902, demolished 1968.
Some of the details on this C.T. Art Colored card are amazing. The big red building behind is a hotel. The sign can be read (reversed) when magnified. On another building is a billboard with a picture of a 1930- ish card.
1912 grant.
Built prior to 1916, of cream colored brick and steel,
according to the Texas Handbook. This was a library in the vanguard.
Note the signpost in the lower left corner.
Graycraft Card chose a nice, Deco design for this card. For monochrome,
this is an attractive card.
1899 - 2005
3 ornaments, bigger than those on Wisconsin library buildings. Candy striped awnings,
of course. However, the card seems a touch too old for the mast to the left of the dome to be a
radio tower.
Wonderful C.T. Photochrom by Curt Teich, I presume.
Photo history on a Texas Escapes page.
From the card:
The Carnegie Library at San Antonio is one of the finest edifices in the city. Mr. Andrew Carnegie gave Doll. 50,000 for the building, and the site cost Doll. 15,000. It has an endowment fund, the income of which, together with a special tax levied by the city, maintains its work. It is under the control of a Board of Trustees.
Mrs. E.E.M. agreed in 1909, adding in her message to Miss May Millis of the
Leavenworth (KS) Public Library:
This endowment fund should be started in Leav. even tho' it be very small
at first-
Now you know what librarians do on vacation.
Hokey smokes! Is that ivy or kudzu?
Library built in 1902 and demolished since. My estimate is that it bit the bullet in the early 1960s, if you look at the current central library building.
The Commercialchrome card was distributed by the Behrens Drug Co. and mailed in 1918.
Library Postcards: Civic Pride in a Lost America |
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© 2003-8 Judy Aulik
Updated 16 July 2008.