Postcard exhibit opens at GBCPL Aug. 20

BY MOLLIE S. WATERS                                 

The Greenville Standard

 

In 1775, Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general by the Second Continental Congress.

Almost 100 years later in 1873, the first postcards were issued in the United States.

Since that time, many people have collected postcards, and those people are called deltiologists.

One man who collected nearly 25,000 postcards during his lifetime was Dr. Wade Hall, a former Troy State Teachers College graduate. That school is now known as Troy University.

When Dr. Hall passed away, he donated his postcard collection to Troy University’s Archives on the Troy main campus.

That collection has now become a traveling exhibit, and it will be available for viewing at the Greenville-Butler County Public Library (GBCPL) beginning August 20.

According to the Troy University website, most of the postcards in the exhibit are from the early 1900s to the 1960s.

“The quality and size of his [Dr. Hall’s] collection is impressive because he built it at a time when good, historical postcards were scarce,” states the website. “This exhibit is a small sampling of the historical postcards which Hall donated to the Troy University Archives on the Troy Campus.”

The website states that Hall grew up near Union Springs, taught in Opp, served in the Army in Germany, then taught English at the University of Florida, Kentucky Southern College, and Bellarmine University.

“Hall collected these postcards during his travels around the country,” states the website.

The postcard exhibit will open at 5 p.m. on Monday at the GBCPL.

The opening reception will include a special presentation by Ms. Ruth Elder, who is a current cataloging librarian at Troy University.

The presentation is free and is open to the public.