New Year’s Mail Call

What better way to begin 2019 than with some charming New Year’s greetings from the past?

Collections management librarian Dana Miller has been working on a survey of materials in OHS’ offsite storage to help finalize the library’s master inventory and prioritize future cataloging. Among the materials are these delightful greeting cards that Dana spotted in a collection of papers and correspondence from the Duyck family.

Two of the cards feature lovely embroidered designs, including the words “Gelukkig nieuwjaar” — “happy new year” in Dutch. One card has no message, but on the reverse side of the other is a handwritten note, also in Dutch, from the recipient’s goddaughter. “May this year be a year of blessings and favor for you,” she wrote, according to a translation included with the card. The embroidered cards are undated, but much of the correspondence in the collection dates from 1900 to 1909.

A third card, postmarked January 1907, appears to be stamped leather. It features a jaunty man pointing at the (motivational) message “Everything comes / To those who wait, / And the lazy man / Waits to greet it. / But success comes on with rapid gait, / To the fellow who goes to meet it.”

We at OHS wish you the best in 2019, at whatever pace it comes.