This collection includes postcards created by children and teens in Alpena, Milford, and Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, from the 2015 competition 1 cubic ft. (in 2 boxes). Milford won the competition in 2015. A folder of information about the 2015 competition is in the front of box 1.
The 2016 competition postcards 6.75 cubic feet (in 14 boxes) include those created by children and teens in pre-schools, and both public and private schools in Alpena, Clinton County (supporting DeWitt Public Library), Houghton Lake, L’Anse. In addition to children’s postcards there are several folders of homemade crafty postcards created by adults in the Houghton Lake Public Library Craft Group. All of the Polish News competition postcards were homemade by adults associated with the Polish News in Detroit. Alpena won the competition in 2016. Schools were identified whenever possible. When identification was not specific minors are identified as students. A folder of information about the 2016 competition is in the front of box 3.
The 2017 competition postcards, 4.25 cubic feet (in 9 boxes), include those created by children and adults in L’Anse, Leelanau, New Baltimore, Oceana, and Utica. Three-dimensional, art, reproduced art, and composite image postcards are included. Specific schools or institutions were not identified. L’Anse won the competition in 2017 with Utica a close second. A folder of information about the 2017 competition is in the front of Box 17.
The 2018 competition postcards, 2 cubic feet (in 4 boxes), include those created by children, and a couple of adults, in Albion, Detroit, East Grand Rapids, Pontiac, Saugatuck, and Utica. Art and reproduced art postcards are included. While no specific schools were identified as contributors, Saugatuck District Library was identified as an institution were children created children’s art postcards for the competition. Saugatuck won the competition in 2018 while Utica came in second. A folder of information about the 2018 competition is in the front of Box 25.
The 2019 competition postcards, 1.5 cubic feet (in 3 boxes), include postcards mostly created by children. Postcards created, or probably created, by adults include some in the Grandville folder, including five reproduced historical photographs, and postcards in the Sparta Retirement Community and Sparta adults folder. Identified Sparta schools or school districts include: Algoma Christian Schools, Appleview Elementary, Kent City Schools, Ridgeview schools, and Sparta Middle and High schools. Sparta won the competition over Grandville. A folder of information about the 2019 competition is in the front of Box 30, and a folder about the 2020 competition is in the back of Box 32. Only a few people people identified themselves by first names in the Algoma, Kent City, Ridgeview, Sparta schools, and Sparta Retirement Community folders.
The collection is organized alphabetically by year of competition, city, then by topic. The collection is ongoing.
Processing Note: Duplicate mass-produced postcards were sorted and withdrawn from the collection. This includes approximately 4 cubic feet (2015), 1 cubic foot (2016), 1.5 cubic (2017), 1 cubic foot (2018), and 1.5 cubic feet (2019). The remaining postcards were compared to the existing Michigan postcards in the Clarke. Non-duplicates were then filed into the Michigan postcards collection. None of the children’s postcards were duplicates.
Organizational History:
The Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University held a competition beginning in 2014, the DigMichNews Contest, for the public to choose between five Michigan newspapers to digitize and place on the web. The finalists were newspapers published in Alpena, Ionia, Milford, Sault Sainte Marie, and Traverse City. To determine a winner, a postcard/tweet challenge was held in 2015. Votes could be sent in by a tweet via Twitter or by mailing a Michigan picture postcard to the Clarke. School children were encouraged to color/draw a postcard for extra credit. By the end of the competition, the Clarke had received 27,364 tweets and 12,198 postcards in 2015.
Because of the massive numbers of duplicate, mass-produced postcards and the time and staff it took to sort, check, and interfile them, the competition rules changed in 2016 to emphasize extra points for children’s postcards or handmade cards by adults. A total of 7, 912 postcards were received in 2016.
In 2017 a total of 6,839 postcards were received, of which 2,761 were handmade by children or adults. In addition, there were a total of 25,136 tweets received.
In 2018 a total of 5,138 postcards were received, of which 1,750 were handmade specifically by school children. In addition, a total of 31,287 tweets received.
In 2019 a total of 2,887 postcards were received, of which all but some of the postcards in 2 folders were handmade specifically by school children. In addition, a total of 395 tweets received.
