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Exhibit June-September 2002
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Wish
You Were Here!
Historic Postcards from San Diego and California
From the John R. and Jane Adams Postcard Collection
This virtual exhibit is a companion to the physical exhibit on display
at Special Collections and University Archives (Library Addition, 4th
floor) and the Zig-Zag Corridor (Love Library, 1st floor) from June
28 to September 15, 2002.
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East San Diego
Looking east on El Cajon Boulevard from 43rd Street in 1910.
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The John R. and Jane Adams Postcard Collection, which is housed in the
Special Collections Department of the Malcolm A. Love Library at San Diego
State University, consists of approximately 200,000 postcards. The scope
of the collection is wide ranging, both geographically and topically,
with numerous specimens from major postcard publishers. The collection
covers the entire spectrum of postcard history, filed in seven categories:
San Diego, California, U.S. Views, Publisher, Foreign Views, Topical,
Card Types, and Miscellaneous. Our exhibits focus on San Diego and its
environs (showcased in Special Collections) and California (showcased
in the Zig-Zag-Corridor).
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Dr. and Mrs. Adams donated nearly all of the postcards to the University
Library from 1989 to 1999. Dr. Adams - one of the University's most distinguished
professors of English - and his wife were major benefactors of the University
who had long contributed important gifts to the Library, including a substantial
Henry James Collection. Dr. and Mrs. Adams assembled their postcard collection
through meticulous searching over a period of sixty years.
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San Diego State College, in the 1940s at its new location.
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Interstate 5 and 395 (now 163) with view of downtown San Diego, in the
1980s.
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The Adams Postcard Collection has a detailed finding aid (an archival
inventory) that includes an index. There is a particularly comprehensive
collection of postcards representing San Diego and California, as might
be expected considering the donors' sixty-year residence in San Diego.
More than 4,500 postcards of San Diego County, which are housed in fifteen
boxes, constitute an especially rich resource for the pictorial history
of the region.
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View the online exhibit either by accessing
the links below or following this arrow:
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Many of our postcards are not dated.
Would you be able do supply us with accurate or "circa" dates?
If so, please write us an
email.
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Text taken partially from Martha
McPhail's article "California Here We Come: The Adams Postcard
Collection at San Diego State University" (appeared in: Stevens,
Norman D. [e.]: Postcards in the Library: Invaluable Visual Resources.
The Haworth Press, Inc.: New York/London, 1995, pp. 51-58).
Thanks to:
Martha McPhail (Cataloging Librarian, Love Library), the staff and student
assistants from Government Publications for their assistance in helping
us locate pertinent and interesting maps; Natalie Pastor (Library Instruction/Graphic
Services) for designing our wonderful posters (in record time!) Most of
all, we'd like to thank our indispensable student assistants Autumn Ninteman,
Angélica Montes, Viktoria Nikolova and Hugo Hurtado for their hard
work, reliability, and creativity, as well as the staff of Special Collections
for their input and support, Cristina Favretto, Kathi Neal, Jossie Chavez
and Elke Zobl (exhibit curator).
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Virtual exhibit created by Elke Zobl
This page http://infodome.sdsu.edu/about/depts/spcollections/exhibits/0602/index.shtml is maintained by Special Collections c/o Cristina Favretto.
Please use our Feedback Form
for your questions, comments, and suggestions.
File saved 11/23/04 09:49 PST
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