From Picture Postcards to the Cat's Meow: eBaying Library History

My father passed away in August 2024 and I served as the Executor of his estate. I often felt inadequate for the job, but sometimes, my librarian skills proved handy. For example, inventories are useful for managing and selling personal property, and compiling such lists is second-nature to me. I created a spreadsheet of Dad's vinyl records, cassettes, and CDs, and another one for a few dozen Thomas Kinkade Christmas decorations he owned. After I sold everything, I turned an eye toward my own collections. Over the past year, I cataloged my (546!) iron-on patches, and now I'm working on my library-themed postcards. 

Cataloging my library postcard collection. Photo by the author.

I have been collecting library postcards for more than 25 years. That's my husband's fault. Antiquing is one of his hobbies, and when we were dating, he kindly offered to buy me something alongside the woodworking tools he was purchasing for himself. I didn't want to cost him a lot of money, and I didn't want to fill my apartment with junk, so at first I struggled to find something for myself. Then, one afternoon, while I was browsing a cluttered booth at a flea market near Waynesboro, I found an old postcard showing the Boston Public Library. It connected to my home state and to my profession, and it was priced just a dollar or two. Within a few months, I became one of "those" people who zero-in on paper ephemera vendors, drag chairs to their booths, and sit for an hour or more flipping through albums and boxes of cards. I also started to waste a lot of down-time trawling eBay, looking for library cards that I didn't already possess. A quarter-century later, I've got more than 2,000 cards. Nearly all of them depict U.S. public libraries. I own many from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, but I have examples from all 50 states. Wanna make me squeal with delight? Find me a card that shows a library's interior, including period decor and obsolete technologies. 

As I've explained in a scholarly article (2008), businesses and governments used postcards for brief communications during the 19th century. However, advances in illustration printing technology, growth of the tourism industry, and favorable changes to postal rules and fees led to a picture postcard fad during the 1900s and 1910s. Because libraries were typically among the largest and most ornate public buildings in their communities, there are many early postcards that showcase them. Although most  feature artistic or edited renderings rather than real photos, they have some uses for historical research. Of interest to architectural scholars, postcards show regional differences in construction materials and styles. For the sociologically-minded, seeing a building's placement, such as within a downtown business district, versus a park-like setting, can indicate the clientele that a library hoped to attract. 

Postcards aren't the only type of librariana that one can spend a lot of money on. As Larry Nix has explained on The Library History Buff website, souvenir china and silver spoons depicting libraries were common in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, for some of the same reasons that postcards were. Norman Stevens, who wrote a librariana collector's guide, further mentioned bookmarks, conference badges, cookbooks, and stamps. The Holy Grail, though, is probably an oak card catalog made by the Library Bureau, a company founded by Melvil Dewey. I've got a 72-drawer, 1910s Globe-Wernicke catalog, precisely because I can't afford an LB. My Globe set me back $1,100 when I bought it -- and the varmints that were living in it -- off a guy's porch in Pottsville. It was in such rough condition that it took my husband and me 6 months to restore it. 

Postcards, china, and other items in my collection were a significant resource when my research focused on the early 20th century. However, they aren't as useful for the period I'm investigating now. Today, most small cities and towns aren't featured on postcards; among those that are, public libraries are rarely included in the imagery. In fact, I rarely find library-themed postcards that date later than World War II. 

So, my question is -- are there any fads from the 1950s through the early 21st century that have swept up Pennsylvania libraries?

These days, there are companies like JanWay and The Library Store that create customized giveaway items specifically for the library market. In addition, there are general vendors like 4imprint that work with all types of organizations. In my travels, I've picked up coffee mugs, T-shirts, pins, tote bags, and other stuff that was likely produced by these companies. But that's library-manufactured buzz. I'm more interested in moments when libraries were celebrated along with other community institutions, as libraries were included among bridges, city halls, natural wonders, and other notable sites on postcards of a century ago.

This week, my curiosity led me to back to eBay, where I searched for "library" among "Collectibles," "Home and Garden," "Jewelry and Watches," and other categories. At first, I didn't find much from the mid-late 20th century, except for a few isolated pieces. But then I stumbled over the cat's meow. Literally!

In the 1980s, perhaps as a result of the National Bicentennial or the popularity of the Little House on the Prairie TV series, there was a rise in "country" home decor that looked back to the 1700s and 1800s for its inspiration. Amid that trend, Faline Jones of Wooster, OH, started a business called Cat's Meow Village which sold (still sells) limited-edition, screen printed wooden blocks designed to resemble historic buildings. Initially, Jones cut them using an old scroll saw in her family's hog barn, but during its peak in the 1990s her company swelled to more than 300 employees. Custom orders and fundraisers have been a substantial part of the business. Well-made but inexpensive, thin enough to sit on top of chair rails, plate racks, and other narrow shelves, they always include a little black cat named Casper. I had already known of Cat's Meow, because my mother had owned some when I was younger, but I didn't realize until recently how many libraries Jones's company had issued. I quickly acquired a 1995 example depicting Harrisburg Public Library (see below), and there are Cat's Meows for the Indiana (PA) Free Library, Johnstown Carnegie Library (1992), Reading Public Library (1993), Martin Library in York (1993), James V. Brown Library in Williamsport (1996), Mary S. Bieseker Library in Somerset (1997), W. B. Konkle Library in Montoursville (2000), Elizabethtown Public Library (2002), and others. 

Harrisburg Public Library by Cat's Meow Village, 1995.
Do you see Casper the cat? Photo by the author. 

Today, these retired shelf-sitters usually cost between $10 and $20. So now I collect Cat's Meows, and I recently reached out to the company for a check-list of all the library-related ones they've produced. If you can't find me, I'm probably lost down the rabbit's hole of some Facebook group or other. 

It's probably a good thing that I didn't find many other types of recent library collectibles, because I wouldn't want to drain my bank account and spend the rest of my life cataloging them!