Postcard Collection, 1890-2004
| Oberlin College Archives
Administrative Information
The Oberlin College Archives postcard collection, Record Group 36, consists of approximately 5500 black and white and color cards, c.1890s (1900-30)-2004, and n.d. The collection includes scenes from states and cities in the United States (arranged by state and cities within states), countries around the world, occasion cards (i.e., Thanksgiving, birthdays, World War I, and Easter), paintings in art galleries, and scenes from Oberlin, Ohio and the state of Ohio. The Oberlin College postcards primarily depict campus scenes, buildings, and events. The postcards of the town of Oberlin include street scenes, storms, businesses, schools and homes. The Ohio postcards (arranged alphabetically by town or city) include government buildings, monuments, schools, libraries, and other points of interest. Available is a separate box of miscellaneous cards, which include pictures of artwork, greetings, and various illustrations.
The Oberlin College and town postcards were reorganized in 2009 to follow the arrangement of the Photograph Collection vertical files for buildings and subjects, and placed into two archival boxes.
One small box of photocopies of Oberlin postcards and a CD with digital surrogates as JPEGs were collected by Robert S. Jordan, Class of 1943. Many of these were loaned by contemporaries of Jordan’s at Oberlin, including Bill Farquhar and Mary Louise “Winkie” Benson. For some images the Oberlin College Archives is noted as the owner. The digital scans are available for reference use on the CD; these have been saved to the Archives main storage computer.
(Total volume--11 boxes, 8.76 l.f.)
INVENTORY
Postcards by State
Box 1
Alabama - D.C., c. 1900-1930
Box 2
Florida – Michigan, c. 1900-1930
Box 3
Minnesota - New York. c. 1900-1930
Box 4
North Carolina – Ohio, c. 1900-1930
Box 5
Oklahoma – Wyoming, c. 1900-1930
Box 6
Special Occasion and Subject, c. 1900-1930
Box 7
Miscellaneous, Unidentified, and Duplicate, c. 1900-1930
Box 8
Oberlin College & Community, c. 1890s - 1985
College Buildings
Postcard book of campus buildings
Administration Building (Cox)
Allen Art Buildings
Allen Memorial Hospital
Allencroft
Baldwin Cottage
Barrows Hall
Bosworth Hall
Cabinet Hall
Carnegie Library
Chapel
Coeducational Centennial Gateway
Conservatory
Council Hall
Dascomb Cottage
East Hall
Fairchild Hall
Finney Chapel
French Hall
Goodrich House
Grey Gables
Hales Gymnasium
Hall Auditorium
Harkness Hall
Johnson House
Keep Cottage
Kettering Hall
King Building
Ladies Hall
Lord Cottage
May Cottage & Nancy Squire Cottage
Memorial Arch
Mudd Library
Noah Hall
Oberlin Inn
Old Barrows Hall
Old Laboratory
Peters Hall
Rice Hall
Severance Chemical Laboratory
Shurtleff Cottage
Society Hall
South Hall
Spear Library
Sturges Hall
Talcott Hall
Tank Home
Tappan Hall
Theological Quadrangle
Warner Gymnasium
Warner Hall
Webster Hall
Wright Physics Laboratory
Oberlin College and Community -- Subjects
Alumni Association
Athletics
Arboretum
Bandstand
Campus Views and Scenes
Cartoons/Drawings of Oberlin History
Churches
Commencement
Box 9
Dancing
Dramatics
Floods in Oberlin
Glee Club
Groups
Houses
Individuals
Little Red Schoolhouse
Miscellaneous
Oberlin Community
Oberlin, Jean Frederic
Oberlin Kindergarten Training School
Oberlin Public Schools
Quilt
Streets
Orchestras
Storms in Oberlin
Box 10
Foreign, c. 1900-1930
Postcards with restrictions
Allen Memorial Art Museum, by Geof Comings, ca. 2004
Historic Downtown [Oberlin] by Moonlight, by D. Preston, 2004
Historic Downtown [Oberlin], by D. Preston, 2004
The Big Parade, by Dave Parsh, ca. 2004
Box 11
Robert S. Jordan Postcard Collection [acc. 2017/063]
Photocopies and scans on CD-ROM, 2006, n.d.