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Postal History Covers/Envelopes

Libraries have been using the mail system to conduct their daily business throughout their history. It is impossible to determine how many envelopes have been mailed from or to libraries, but it must be in the millions, if not tens of millions. The vast majority of these envelopes have been routinely discarded as is common business practice. Because of their ephemeral nature, those remaining may number only in the thousands or tens of thousands. No one knows for sure. In any case, library envelopes are scarce and difficult to locate. 

I began collecting envelopes related to libraries as a result of my interest in library postage stamps and an interest in library history. Stamp collectors often collect envelopes as well as postage stamps. They refer to envelopes as covers.

One of the most interesting aspects of library cover collecting is that you can never know what is out there waiting to be discovered. I have searched through thousands of covers at stamp shows and on the Internet looking for these elusive treasures. By aggressively searching for library covers and with the assistance of a number of cooperative stamp dealers and collectors, I have accumulated a collection of several thousand items from all over the world and from many different time periods. I have created an exhibit that includes many of my American library covers.

Collectors of covers say that every cover has a story. The story they are referring to is often the story of how the cover got from one place to another through one or more postal systems. I, on the other hand, am primarily interested in the story the cover tells about libraries and librarians. Sometimes the stories turn out to be mysteries as well.  The covers below are good examples of this.

Robert Alonzo Brock (1839-1914) served at the Corresponding Secretary and Librarian of the Virginia Historical Society from 1875 until 1892.  He also served as the Secretary for the Southern Historical Society.  While at the Virginia Historical Society he developed an extensive publications program.  So extensive in fact, it brought the society to the brink of bankruptcy.  This situation caused his eventual removal from the post of Corresponding Secretary and Librarian by the society’s board.  The publications program of the society also generated a significant amount of correspondence.  Envelopes sent to or from libraries before 1900 are extremely scarce.  So it is unusual that from various sources I have been able to acquire more than twenty covers that have been sent to R. A. Brock, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Southern Historical Society, all during the period when Brock was associated with the two historical societies. There are probably more of these covers.  The question arises as to who and why were the covers retained.  There is a good possibility that Brock, himself, may have saved the covers.  Brock was a collector of rare books and the “Brock Collection” is located at the Huntington Library in California.  More on R. A. Brock can be found in the July/August/September 2003 issue of Virginia Libraries.

Charles McCarthy, was the first librarian of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library which was established in 1901 as part of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission under the leadership of Frank Hutchins. McCarthy was a leader in the Progressive Movement and is considered the author of the “Wisconsin Idea”. The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library served as a prototype of such libraries in other states and also was the model for the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. McCarthy was a confident of Theodore Roosevelt. He is the only state bureaucrat honored in the state Capitol with a large plaque that is located in the chambers of the Assembly. This cover is a pre-stamped postal stationary envelope and contains the logo of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission. It was mailed by McCarthy from New York to himself at what appears to be his home address in Madison. Why was he in New York and what did the envelope contain? That is the mystery.

This cover was mailed to Melvil Dewey in Amherst, MA in 1876 where he served as Assistant Librarian at the College.  It was at Amherst that Dewey created his world famous decimal system for classifying books.  The mystery here is that Dewey established the American Metric Bureau on July 4, 1876 after he had left Amherst.  Why would someone (Dewey?) at the American Metric Bureau send a letter to Dewey at Amherst?

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Last updated: 02-22-05

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