The Nankin Township Historical Society

Thank you John King Books for more free books with bookplates, falling apart antique tomes which I will make my first hornbook (a page from an old book mounted on a slab of wood) with and this Crowley's Lending Library book, "My Name is Morgan" by William Woolfolk. Crowley's, like Detroit's legendary department store J. L. Hudson Co., had both a lending library as well as a modern bookstore that sold the latest books. Detroit Free Press , September 17, 1950 Crowley's Lending Library began sometime around September of 1950 and had a selection of 5,000 books which could be borrowed for a penny a day and a 2 cent charge per day after a fortnight. As the second newspaper clipping illustrates a month later they were up to 6,000 volumes.  Detroit Free Press , October 13, 1950 The stamp in this 1963 book shows that the rental prices had increased to 5 cents per day and 10 cents a day after 14 days. This book must have had some popularity as it was the 8th copy of...

I've never seen this postcard from J. L. Hudson's before so when I saw 7 or 8 of them at the estate sale the other day I grabbed them all. After coming to my senses I put back half and settled on 4. Let somebody else have a few. I'll sell at least two of them and make back most of the $17 I spent at the sale. Not to mention that the money used came from a few textbooks that I sold so it was all free to begin with. That's always been my modus operendi concerning antiques or else I couldn't justify spending the money on stuff that I don't really NEED no matter how amazing it is. The card speaks for itself. I want to say that it's from the early 1900s but that's a complete stab in the dark. It's almost definitely not later than the 1920s.