At the start of this century, before even the telephone, people sent
postcards like we send e-mail today. “I'll see you on Saturday,” was
typical postcard scrawl.
Many of those messages were scribbled on postcards that featured buildings and scenes
of the Union campus.
Lance Spallholz, instructor of computer science, has been finding these little pieces
of Union history tucked away in antique stores as far away as Crisfield, Md.
Now, he's sharing his hobby over the Internet. His homepage (http://tardis.union.edu/~spallhol/postcards)
features the Union postcards he has collected for a decade.
His site gives a glimpse of the postcards he has found: South College, the Nott
Memorial (then called Memorial Hall), the old Washburn Hall. The cards date from about
1906 to 1920. Many were printed or hand-colored in Germany.
A postcard of the Nott Memorial carries the message, “Here is one of the great
buildings where many great men have received their learning.”
On a 1908 postcard of South College the sender wrote, “X marks Harry's room
where we are having a fun time, but most too strenuous for me.”
Some of the messages are poignant, like this one on the back of a postcard of South
College: “If your father had a good memory, he could tell you what a good time he had
here.”