Alice Howard collection of postcard correspondence in Esperanto 1906-1939 1909-1911

Summary

Creators:

Howard, Alice, 1860-1940

Language:

Esperanto French English Spanish;Castilian German Hungarian

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Arrangement:

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

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Esperantists

Location of this collection:

California State Library, Sutro Library

SFSU - J. Paul Leonard Library

1630 Holloway Ave, Room 610

San Francisco, CA 94132-4030, US

Contact:

(415) 469-6100

sutro@library.ca.gov

Website