Special Collections Finding Aids

Abstract The North Dakota Cities and Towns Postcard Collection represents the largest collecting program by Dr. Ronald Olin, spanning many years of seeking out images and postmarks from all North Dakota cities and towns. While his primary interest was postal history and thus collecting postcards for the postmarks, this collection is much broader in scope and thus its research value. The collection documents largely the built environment of many of the towns, yet does include social scenes and...

Abstract The Ronald Olin Postcard Collection comprises over 1,200 postcards documenting Fargo, N.D. The postcards in the collection date mainly from the early to mid-twentieth century, although there are also postcards from throughout the later part of the twentieth century. They hey-day of postcards was from 1907 to 1915. Most of the cards in the collection were commercially produced and represent well-known Fargo buildings, monuments, and views. A small number of the cards, though, document town life,...