Sorting Saturday – Postcard Album

Collecting postcards seems to be a timeless hobby. My great grandmother saved cards sent to her and purchased them in her travels. My grandparents and parents saved postcards and I can’t resist doing it. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s a postcard received or purchased from another part of the world or down the street, people can’t resist the urge to save those cards with interesting pictures or artwork. I found it interesting that in the NGS Exhibitor's Hall this past April, the busiest booth on my first pass through the hall, was one with boxes and boxes of vintage postcards. This week’s selection from the Archival Closet was my grandmother’s postcard album which I am told is one of several she had that were ultimately distributed among family members.

Being that the album is nearly 100 years old, it’s not in the best of shape, and it’s not the most wonderful place to safely store those vintage postcards, I decided to disassemble the album and place the postcards into clear pages designed for photographs of the same size as postcards. One great thing about this set up is that the backside of the postcard can be viewed and read without having to remove the postcard to do so. The other advantage is that these clear pages have the exact same layout as the original album allowing me to preserve the original order of the collection. Eventually I may opt for storing them in a card file type box but for now while I know the postcards will be handled, read, and transcribed this seems like the best situation.

This week’s mini project from archival closet was a simple and pleasant one; and a nice reprieve from the massive and daunting challenge that waits.


© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum