Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
Carnegie Libraries of Wyoming
I've heard these buildings referred to as "Cowboy Carnegies," which I find charming. The only postcard I still need from this state is Thermopolis.
Basin
Sometimes you have to take what you can get, and this RPPC has been through a lot. It was mailed in 1917.
The Carnegie (1908 grant) building has gone through more. It was demolished in 1954, then replaced with an attractive modern brick building, to serve Big Horn County.
Buffalo
AKA Johnson County Library. 1909 grant. Replaced in 1987.
The building in the back is the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum, which incorporated the library building in 1989.
I bet you think Jim Gatchell was some famous cowboy, or even a rodeo star, right?
Guess again. He was a druggist, and friend of the Sioux.
Casper
1906 grant. Demolished, 1970.
'Newvochrome' card distributed by the Schulte Bros.
Cheyenne
Colorado News Company card, mailed in 1908. Entire back. Picture dates shortly after construction, as there is no landscaping, nor lawn, evident.
1899 grant. 1902 building. Replaced in 1969, then demolished.
Sigh.
Cody
Late Carnegie building in two aspects: Built in 1916, demolished for its replacement in 1965.
Sepia tinted card printed on buff paper by the Bloom Brothers of Minneapolis, and distributed by the Harding Curio and Drug Co.
Douglas
1908 grant. Demolished not much later than this card was produced: in 1966.
It's a Noble Postcard.
Literally.
Evanston
The Uinta County Library moved from the Carnegie building in 1984, and the Romanesque lite building repurposed as the County Museum and Evanston Chamber of Commerce.
No, it couldn't contain both, and received an addition in 2008.
The photographic postcard was printed by M.L. Zercher B. & B. Co.
Green River
Chas. E. Norris (Not Chuck, thankee!) postcard.
1905 grant. 1906 building. Replaced, and serves as a County Circuit Court.
Nice view!
Lander
Built in 1907 and now part of the Fremont County Library System. Surprisingly, the Carnegie building is in the middle of its second renovation.
1914 Curt Teich 'Colorchrom' card. More of an 'Offcolorchrom,' in my opinion. On the library's history page (unfortunately, no longer online), it's much more ochre.
Laramie
1903 grant. 1927 expansion: remodeled in 1951. Building replaced in 1981. The Albany County Public Library is in need of another replacement building.
Interesting image shows two men in hats lounging near the entrance. How they got there is a question, as the yard is surrounded by a barbed wire fence which includes a closed gate.
Can't let the cattle in.
Lusk
Although Lusk's Carnegie grant was not conspicuously late (1914), the library wasn't built until 1919. Although the use of light and dark brick, in contrasting masonry, was a current architectural trend at the time, the arched windows and neoclassical lines would have looked at home 25 years earlier.
The postcard is dated 1927 by Bell, and is a quintessential Western scene.
It shows a boy in overalls and an older man kneeling in the grass, perhaps planting. A boy and a girl in a sunbonnet are sitting on the lawn. Its message, dated 7/29/1927, mentions the sender having had been waved at by Calvin Coolidge.
Newcastle
1911 grant. Awkwardly renovated.
1914 card from Curt Teich's 'Doublechrom' series. No idea here why Doublechrom cards are such special beasts. They do scan nicely. Note the car with whitewalls sinking into the mud of the street.
Rock Springs
Late 1907 grant: built in 1910. Still standing and in use as a library, but heavily renovated.
C.U. Williams postcard, but claimed by O.D. Rasmussen as publisher. This is one of the westernmost scenes by the Bloomington, IL printer.
Sheridan
1904 grant. Apparently replaced some time after 1963. It was demolished in 1974.
Card published by Herbert Coffeen, who appears to have been a paragon of good taste. Did he have this printed in Germany?
Wheatland
Salute to bilateral symmetry.
1916 grant. One of the last Carnegie buildings, and one with a far more interesting founding librarian, Mabel Wilkinson, than library structure.
Black & White brand card.