Postcard Collection, 1890-2004

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.