Donations enrich the historical community

Apologies for the inactivity here since my computer spontaneously combusted last week. This post by phone is the best I can do for now.

In other news, this past week we received two separate offers to donate postcards to the Society.

I received a phone call from John Poss in Gastonia, NC, who offered to send us a Dreer’s Nursery shipment postcard dated 1911. It seems that he sometimes obtains postcard collections through his work and he then makes an effort to track down a sender or recipient and sends the item to them.

In our case, John saw the name DREER, and when he googled it, the search led him to rivertonhistory.com, arguably the greatest source of information and images on the web for the defunct nursery. This card is a welcome addition to the Society’s collection since it is not one we had seen before.

He wrote:

John –
Great to see this artifact return home –
Thanks,
John

This must be the week for Johns.

Riverton resident John Criqui made a special trip to my home today in Delran to pass along five vintage postcards, one of which is a real photo post card, or RPPC, showing Keating’s Drugstore at the intersection of Broad and Main Streets (second photo down on the right). (Read more about Keating’s Drugstore in this previous post.) Can a classic car buff suggest a date for the photo?

I really must emphasize the gratitude with which we accept these relics from Riverton’s past. The HSR only actually owns a small fraction of the postcards and photos you find displayed here. Most images are simply scans supplied by collectors, so this was a treat to receive these six vintage postcards for our collection, two of which have not been displayed here before.

Additionally, when ready disposal of historical ephemera for cash is just a few mouse-clicks away on eBay, we applaud these men for choosing instead to benefit the Society with their philanthropy.

I will get better images posted in the IMAGES gallery when my computer gets fixed. – John McCormick, newsletter and website editor

REV. 5/28/18: You can see scans of the above items on the IMAGES page under Palmyra, Riverton Businesses, Organizations, Public Buildings and Dreer’s Nursery.