Charline Fitzpatrick and Sally Postma

Charline Fitzpatrick and her daughter Sally Postma did not intend to collect postcards. In an interview with the Lawrence Journal-World, Fitzpatrick admits she would often throw away postcards she received and did not think twice about saving them. Fitzpatrick changed her mind when she saw a postcard with an image that intrigued her and began actively collecting after that. Postma, who was already a collector of antiques, eagerly joined her mother in the search for antique postcards. The mother-daughter pair did not want just any old postcards, they specifically looked for postcards that focused on Lawrence. The postcards that had notes written on them were favored over those that were blank, but both were eagerly collected. The collection grew as the duo searched antique stores, flea markets, and postcard exchanges.

According to Postma’s daughter, Rosalea Carttar, Postma's "heyday" period of collecting was in the 1980s. Carttar recalls her mother coming back from trips that were specifically taken to hunt down new postcards and the excitement her mother exuded when she had acquired a new one for the collection. After her mother’s death in 1987, Postma continued to collect postcards into the early 2000s. The postcard collection was then bequeathed to Carttar after Postma’s passing in 2012. There has been no addition to the collection, but it remains in its original albums and is cherished by Rosalea and her husband Peter.

The Fitzpatrick-Postma Collection was kindly loaned to the Lawrence Public Library by the Carttars so that the citizens of Lawrence may be enriched by the extensive history represented in the postcards.