Greetings from Hanover!
Vintage postcards set the scene.
Before Instagram, we had postcards. Does anyone actually send them anymore? In 2020, the U.S. Postal Service reports, more than 485 million postcards were mailed in this country. That’s a far cry from the nearly 3.5 billion mailed in 1950. But deltiology, a.k.a. postcard collecting, is alive and well. People collect only coins and stamps in greater numbers. Through the years alums and their widows have sent DAM bundles of postcards that depict campus settings and the town of Hanover—some of which we present here. Many are from the linen card era of the 1930s, when printers used a paper stock that produced vivid colors. To see more, check out Rauner Library’s collection of more than 1,400 postcards, which includes scenes of fraternity houses, Winter Carnival, and dozens of other College events, buildings, and icons.
