Institute of American Deltiology Postcard collection
Collection
0007-MDHC
The Institute of American Deltiology (IAD) is a non-profit established in Pennsylvania in 1993 by Donald Brown. The Institute was established to act as library, gallery and research center for the study of postcards and North American history and culture. The IAD collection is estimated to contain over one million postcards. The National Trust Library received this collection through a generous donation from Donald Brown. The Library currently holds approximately 104,000 cards from the collection, depicting localities in 36 states and territories, including the District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The postcards are dated from the 1870s to the 2000s, with the bulk of the cards dated post 1939. The Library will continue to receive and make available to the public additional postcards from the collection in the upcoming years. Researchers may also want to consult a related postcard collection at the National Trust Library, the National Trust Library Historic Postcard Collection.
This collection is open for research.
Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the special collections reading room staff.
104000 Items
English
The Institute of American Deltiology (IAD) collection is estimated to contain over one million postcards. The National Trust Library received this collection through a generous donation from Donald Brown. The Library currently holds approximately 104,000 cards from the collection, depicting localities in 36 states and territories, including the District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The postcards are dated from 1870s to the 2000s, with the bulk of the cards dated post 1939.
The Institute of American Deltiology (IAD) is a non-profit established in Pennsylvania in 1993 by Donald Brown. The Institute was established to act as library, gallery and research center for the study of postcards and North American history and culture. The Institute is currently located in Myerstown, Pennsylvania.
Donald Brown began collecting postcards in 1943, joining postcard clubs and developing an interest in postcards throughout his adolescence. His formal college education was focused on Library Science and American Studies, which encouraged and enhanced his collecting. Over the years, Mr. Brown has developed an impressive collection and his desire to make this cards available for research led him to establish the Institute of American Deltiology.
The collection is organized into one series.
This collection was donated to the National Trust Library by Donald Brown in 2010. The library began processing the first set of approxomately 66,000 cards in January 2011, and will continue to process additional postcards from the collection as they are received in the upcoming years. A second set of approximately 38,000 cards were added to the collection in April 2012.
Digital copies of select postcards in this collection are available online in the University of Maryland's Digital Collections.
Postcards have been arranged by geographic location whenever possible and sorted into genres that correspond to the approximate date in which the card was printed. Cards have been placed in mylar sleeves for longterm preservation.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives