Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
Carnegie Libraries in Iowa
Cities H-L
Hamburg
No mention of the Carnegie grant on the library's nano-site. However, it states it was established in 1919: this was four years after the grant was made.
It's still in use, I believe.
(L) L.L. Cook card with a message dated 1950, showing a distinctly atypical Carnegie building.
(R) Another L.L. Cook card, slightly different.
Hampton
Not to be confused with the New Hampton Carnegie Library.
1902 grant: still in use.
According to the 1907 sender:
This is a beautiful pressed brick and marble structure. The picture does not do it justice.
V. L. Olney, photographer
Humboldt
(L) Unlovely, unattributed card from about 50 years prior.
(R) Lovely YorKolor card, printed before 1962.
The Humboldt Carnegie building, according to the CLIP site, was built in 1906. It must have been built one molecule at a time, because the later card states that it was dedicated on February 9, 1909.
It fails to mention the Carnegie funding, but there's some evidence not everyone liked the man the way I do. One more big hurrah! for philanthropy!
Indianola
The library building was built in 1903 and replaced in 1985. It now serves as an opera office.
The new Library is in dire need of some windows.
(L) No information about the card, except that it was never mailed.
(R) This card was mailed in 1911, and sent to a sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Iowa City
Mailed in 1911
Tom Jones card, mailed in 1909.
C.L. Wienke postcard.
Built 1902. Now an office building.
There are a lot of wonderful things to be said about Iowa City, and its Library. I was familiar with the 1981-2004 incarnation, and spent a lot of time there in the 1980s.
Anyway, the new building is huge and looks a lot like UW-Madison's Memorial Library. Don't tell them that in Iowa City, however. It'd only make some very nice librarians sad.
Iowa Falls (Carnegie-Ellsworth Library)
(L) Card imported by C.C. Bartlett. Outside of a few early Milwaukee library postals I own, this is the only library card that specifically adds the 'U.S.A.' to the caption. 1907 card mailed in 1910.
(R) L.L. Cook photo postcard.
1903 building now serving as the Carnegie Art Museum and History Museum. Wonderful history on the National Park Service's Hardin County web page.
Replaced in 2000 by the Robert W. Barlow Memorial Library.
Jefferson
(L) Most likely this is an L.L. Cook photo card. Most of these have a particular appearance, especially in the captioning. Uncharacteristically overexposed, but chosen and mailed in mid-1955.
(R) A.M. Simon card, printed in Germany. Did you notice the fountain? It's also present on a pre-1907 card.
A Lincoln Highway Carnegie building, built from a 1903 grant, and still in use.
Knoxville
1910 grant. Still in use with a 1997-8 addition.
Later L.L. Cook photo postcard.
Laurens
1907 grant. Replaced in 1975. Now serves as the Pocahontas County Historical Society Museum.
(L) Unattributed postcard (Massure?) mailed in 1913.
(R) St. Paul Souvenir postcard, mailed in 1914. Both vignettes are photographic: the top features a Church of Christ.
Some doggerel for your day:
Just a little tender thought
For my friend to greet;
Merry hours and merry hearts
May you always meet.
LeMars
(L) SL & Co. monochrome card.
(R) Card printed for J.F. Fischbach for C.E. Wheelock.
Spiffy style mashup of Georgian and Romanesque. 1903 Carnegie grant. It was replaced in 1976.
What looks like shutters is brick.
Today the building is an art and civic center. The library is now in a former Red Owl grocery store.
Leon
1905 grant: opened in late 1906. Essentially unaltered in form, the building is still in use as a public library today.
(L) No publisher's information on the postcard, but it was mailed by some guy bragging about his school grades like a veritable Mma. Makutsi.
(R) This might be a L.L. Cook postcard. Clues to its age include a 48 star flag, an embossed US 69 shield, and a Standard station in the far background using the 1941-1961 signage.
Logan
Received a late 1915 grant. Remodeled in 1967; its new section in 1988 yielded 4,800 square feet of space in total.
The L.L. Cook card shows the petite brick building, with a house in the background.
