Manuscript Group 445 DONALD R. BROWN POSTCARD COLLECTION
[ca. 1906-2009]
1 box, 1 folio
Donald R. Brown of Myerstown, Pennsylvania, is a noted deltiologist (postcard
collector) who is keenly interested in demonstrating and studying the medium of
the post card as a document of our society, past and present. Brown is a graduate
of Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and of the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign where he earned a graduate degree in American history. Brown
also earned a master's in library science from the University of Wisconsin at
Madison. He accepted a job at the Detroit Public Library in 1957, eventually becoming
chief reference librarian, as well as an associate professor at Western Michigan
University. Brown worked at the State Library of Pennsylvania beginning in 1970,
serving as Assistant Director prior to his retirement in 1991. He was a founding
member and chair of the Local History Committee of the American Library Association,
responsible for writing and distributing ALA guidelines for promoting local history
collection development in libraries, and organizing and teaching training sessions
for librarians. Brown was the recipient of the Genealogical Publishing Company
Award from the American Library Association in 1995.
Following his retirement from the State Library, Brown devoted himself completely
to his first love, postcard collecting. Brown began collecting postcards in 1943.
Between 1943 and 1947, he had collected 6,250 cards. The first display of his
collection took place at the Myerstown Community Fair in 1947. Brown became a
member of the Postcard Club of America in 1946, and a member of the Wolverine
Postcard Club in Detroit, Michigan, serving as its president in 1960. He held
his first exhibit at a postcard show at Windy City Post Card Club's Exhibit in
1961. After returning to Pennsylvania, he continued to exhibit his collection
and to give programs to historical groups, community service clubs, genealogical
societies, libraries, and civic organizations throughout the Eastern United States,
emphasizing the research aspects of postcard collecting. In 1982, Brown purchased
a building in Myerstown for postcard research projects. The Institute of American
Deltiology (IAD), a postcard research center, was founded and established in the
building in 1993. Brown's collections form the basis for the collections of this
nonprofit private foundation, dedicated to the study of postcards (Deltiology).
Its subject files consist of at least 700 categories with cross-references. 90,000
postcards are found in the subject files, with ten percent duplicated in the geographical
files. The geographical files contain at least 270,000 postcards, 111,000 of which
are from Pennsylvania. There are at least 12,000 postcards dealing with American
architecture. The facility is open to the public. Brown is the author of Lebanon
County: A Post Card History (1992).
The collection of postcards maintained by the State Archives consists of duplicate
postcards or postcards printed by Brown which he donated to the Archives. The
majority relates to Myerstown, Lebanon County. It includes one photographic postcard
by Harvey Lineaweaver, ca. 1915, of the Bobby Albert Family of Schellsville (Dauphin
County), Pennsylvania.
Institute of American Deltiology Postcards, 1906-2006. (1box) {#445m.1}
[Holdings]
Institute of American Deltiology Pamphlets, 1948-2009. (1 folio) {#445m.2}
[Holdings]
