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Re: GREETING CARDS



My predecessor saved everything, including boxes/folders of greeting
cards.   My practice is to discard these after first going through them
to determine any research relevance.   For example, I sometimes find
the "Christmas letter" from a distant relative which can provide valuable
clues to names/places for genealogists.   Or the card that says "Aunt
Maude" and the envelope tells you where this person is ... and you might
save it because it shows a family connection.

The second choice is a little more critical.   Although I do get deeds of
gift with collections, I do find that it better to retain some of these
materials
so long as the donor is alive or a frequent visitor.   I do explain how we dis-
card items and will give them back, but there's a fine line between the
donor understanding this and their consternation that you tossed some-
thing as simple as the greeting cards.   In their mind, if you were apt to
toss the greeting cards, what other prized momentos did you throw out,
too??

In some of the older collections, greeting cards have been a pleasant
surprise ... Easter cards from the 1890s, Christmas cards from the
1920s reflecting the "flapper" era, and even the art nouveau cards
from the mid-1950s-early 1960s.    That raises some questions for
me as to whether there are any "trends" in the 1970s, 1980s, etc.,
that would let us save a small sampling of such cards.   Certainly
political satire and "event" cards might be useful as a societal
indicator and exhibit possibility.

Dean

Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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