Anderson postcard collection featured in book

"For the Love of Postcards: A Pictorial Celebration of Hometown Heritage" is a compilation of postcards from the collection of the late John Anderson that has been published by George Rogers and Judy Anderson for the benefit of the Community Foundation of Portage County.

The book is available at bookstores in Stevens Point and other area businesses for $14.95. Judy Anderson and George Rogers will be available for a book signing on Friday and Saturday, August 28 and 29, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Book Garden in the CenterPoint Mall in Stevens Point. Books are also available from Anderson at (715) 341-2786 or Rogers (715) 344-9077. Proceeds from sales will go to the John Anderson Fund of the Community Foundation. Earnings from the unrestricted fund are used as grants to nonprofit organizations in the community, according to Ann Shannon, executive director of the foundation.

The book contains 122 historic postcard reproductions that show scenes of Portage County’s past from part of the collection owned by his widow, Judy. John Anderson collected 18,000 postcards during his lifetime.

"This project will benefit our community in several ways," Judy says. "Not only does it record our area historically through photos, but it also will be a keepsake for many of us area residents."

The photographs are supplemented with text written by George Rogers, former editor of the Stevens Point Journal. Dedications were written by John "Steffey" Anderson (John’s son), Judy and Rogers.

While most of the old postcards were printed in black and white, four color reproductions depict murals at the Whiting Hotel. Cards in the collection feature everything from floods and train wrecks to the more traditional street scenes, churches and public buildings.

His father was a rural mail carrier from Mondovi and his mother was the postmaster at Gilmanton, so Anderson’s hobby of collecting picture post cards came naturally. At flea markets and antique shops, he collected pictures that interested him without regard to their value. He was most interested in cards that showed people, horses or old cars, not just buildings.

In addition to his work at the university, Anderson was a free-lance correspondent for Milwaukee newspapers, was campaign press secretary for Governor Lee Dreyfus and served as editor for a variety of newsletters, including one for the Portage County Historical Society. He served on the Stevens Point Board of Review, was a long-time Kiwanis Club member, an active member of the Democratic Party and a founding member of the Central Wisconsin Press Club.

He was interested in preserving the distinctive culture of Portage County. He had a keen interest for old cemetery epitaphs and sometimes presented colorful slide presentations about tombstones.

Sue Koehl, Stevens Point, volunteered her services on the book to coordinate technical aspects of the project. She had worked on "Samples from ‘A County Sampler,’" a collection of John Anderson’s columns that was published in 1994 by the UWSP student group known as Cornerstone Press. Steve Menzel, public relations coordinator at St. Michael’s Hospital, created a cover and layout design for the book.

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