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James Olinkiewicz collection of Brooklyn Daily Eagle postcards

Call Number

PR 355

Date

1905-1907, inclusive

Creator

Olinkiewicz, James (Role: Collector)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Firm)

Extent

1 Linear feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

A complete set of the 486 postcards depicting Brooklyn scenes issued by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper.

Historical Note

Beginning the week of 13 November 1905, and continuing through May 1907, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn's leading newspaper, issued a series of remarkable postcards depicting virtually every notable structure and scene in the borough (see the Scope and Contents note for details). The cards were issued in weekly series of six, and offered gratis to paying readers of the paper who clipped daily coupons for each series and exchanged them at the Eagle's offices. Later, in response to demand, and as supplies allowed, the Eagle offered sets for sale. Today they frequently turn up individually in collections and online auctions, but complete sets of all 486 Brooklyn Eagle cards, such as this one assembled by James Olinkiewicz, are rare.

The best introduction to the cards is Richard L. Dutton's Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Postcards, 1905-1907 (Arcadia Publishing, 2004).

Arrangement

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle issued its postcards in 81 weekly series of 6 cards per series, for a total of 486 cards. The cards are numbered consecutively from 1 to 486 and housed in a single box.

Scope and Contents

Although they emphasize developed neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Park Slope, Prospect Park South, Flatbush, and Coney Island, the Brooklyn Eagle postcards present a dizzying range of subjects scattered throughout the borough. Full card captions are transcribed in the container list, but the images a researcher can expect to find include amusement parks, armories, art museums, athletic clubs, banks, beaches, bridges, cemeteries, charitable institutions, churches (Baptist, Congregationalist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, Roman Catholic, Unitarian) and synagogues, colleges and universities, convents, courthouses, department stores, entertainment venues, factories, firehouses, historic houses, horse racing, hospitals, hotels, industrial districts, infrastructure, ironworks, jails, landmarks, learned institutions, libraries, markets, morgues, nursing homes, office buildings, orphanages, parks, police stations, political clubs, public schools, recreational areas, refineries, reformatories, residences, restaurants, roller-skating rinks, shipping, statues and monuments, streets, theaters, transportation, warehouses, waterfronts, and waterworks. A few of the cards depict people: school principals, mainly, and prominent clergymen, and, towards the end of the series, actors appearing in plays at the Montauk Theatre.

Note that the dates in the container list signify when the postcards were issued, NOT when the photographs were taken. In some cases the cards reproduce images that were made at least thirteen to fifteen years earlier than the 1905-1907 period. See, for instance, Souvenir of Our Public Schools (New York: E. J. Whitlock, 1892), the source of many of the images on the Eagle's school building postcards.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers.

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to twenty exposures of stable, unbound material per day. (Researchers may not accrue unused copy amounts from previous days.)

Use Restrictions

Permission to reproduce any Print Room holdings through publication must be obtained from: Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 270. Fax: (212) 579-8794.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as the James Olinkiewicz Collection of Brooklyn Daily Eagle Postcards, PR 355, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of James Olinkiewicz, August 2013.

Related Archival Materials

A number of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle postcards are duplicated in the New-York Historical Society Postcard Collection (PR-054), Subseries II.B, Boxes 56-58.

Collection processed by

Joseph Ditta

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:46:35 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

When acquired in 2013 the James Olinkiewicz Collection of Brooklyn Daily Eagle Postcards was merged with the Postcard File (PR-054). Archivist Joseph Ditta removed it, processed it separately, and created this finding aid in May 2018.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024