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Guide to the Alice Howard collection of postcard correspondence in Esperanto
M000059
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Table of contents
Collection Title:
Alice Howard collection of postcard correspondence in Esperanto
Dates:
1906-1939
Bulk Dates:
1909-1911
Identification:
M000059
Creator:
Howard, Alice, 1860-1940
Language of Materials:
Esperanto
French
English
Spanish;Castilian
German
Hungarian
Repository:
Sutro Library, California State Library
1630 Holloway Avenue
5th floor
San Francisco, CA, 94132-4030
URL: http://www.library.ca.gov/about/sutro_main.html
Email: sutro@library.ca.gov
Phone: 415-469-6100
Alice Howard was born on October 15, 1860, in New Hampshire to Edwin and Abigail Russell. The family steadily moved westward
before finally settling in Nebraska. Alice married William Baker Howard in 1891. They had three daughters, Margaret (1892-1979),
Gail (1894-1928), and Wilma (1897-19__). Alice died on January 7, 1940.
Alice and Abigail were early adopters of Esperanto, an international auxiliary language constructed by Polish ophthamologist
L. L. Zamenhof with the hope that a shared, neutral language could help promote world peace. He officially published the first
handbook for the language in 1887, where it slowly attracted a following in eastern Europe. The language began to spread outside
of Europe in the late 1890s, eventually growing large enough to justify the creation of an official international governing
body in 1905. Because Zamenhof was Jewish, many non-Jewish Esperantists became victims of the Holocaust; they were also persecuted
in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era for political reasons.
Due to the distributed nature of the Esperanto-speaking community, Esperanto-language newsletters and magazines were an important
tool for information spread across borders in the early years of the Esperanto movement. Some of these publications had classified
sections with dedicated penpal lists where readers could publish their addresses for a small fee. Alice submitted her address
to multiple publications; many of the postcards in this collection were the result of her submission to the periodical "Esperanto"
for inclusion in their March 20, 1910 issue, where she indicated a preference for illustrated postcards. Her address was misprinted
"Omaha (Nebraska Usana) - S-ino W.-B. Howard. 4722 Capitol ove," leading to a number of her penpals addressing their postcards
with "Usana" instead of "Usono [United States]" and "ove" instead of "Ave."
Honorifics such as Sinjoro (S-ro) [Mr.], Sinjorino (S-ino) [Mrs.], and Fraulino (F-ino) [Miss] were frequently prefixed to
names in writing. It was also common to transliterate one's given name into Esperanto, e.g. "Stefano" for Stephen/Istvan/other
equivalents.
Postcards have been grouped by the country that a city or vessel was politically part of at the time the card was postmarked.
The Austria-Hungary subseries contains postcards from the modern-day countries of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Serbia, and Slovakia. The Ottoman Empire subseries contains postcards from the modern-day country of Greece. The Russian Empire
subseries contains postcards from the modern-day countries of Estonia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine.
Although Algeria, India, and Korea were colonies of France, Britain, and Japan respectively, they were governed as separate
countries; accordingly, they have not been included in the same subseries as their then-ruling powers.
This Collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Esperantists
This collection arrived at the Sutro Library as part of a box of unorganized postcards. Items were housed for preservation
and artifically arranged in folders based on sender location.
The title for each item is derived from the signature and location handwritten on the card, if applicable. Sender names have
been normalized in the creator field, with full names and lifespans included where possible.
With an eye towards time, the decision was made to only deeply summarize the contents of correspondence sent from frequent
penpals.
Processed by Tracy Lee, Student Assistant, in 2022-2023.
The collection is arranged in two series: 1. Postcards addressed to Alice Howard. 2. Postcards addressed to Margaret Armstrong.
Within each series, there are subseries arranged alphabetically by country, then alphabetically by sender surname, and finally
chronologically by postmark or correspondence date. Undated postcards without legible postmarks have been placed after those
with identifiable dates.
Series 1: Postcards addressed to Alice Howard
Subseries 1: Algeria
Subseries 2: Argentina
Series 2: Postcards addressed to Margaret Armstrong
This collection consists of postcards from around the world primarily written in Esperanto, mostly addressed to Mrs. W. B.
[Alice] Howard (1860-1940) of Omaha, Nebraska. Almost all are pictorial works, featuring photographs and illustrations. Most
postcards portray landmarks and points of interest from the senders' locations.
A handful of postcards addressed to Mrs. Howard [Margaret] Armstrong (1892-1979), Alice's eldest daughter, have been also
included in the collection.