MASON CITY – The Mason City Public Library has made available for purchase a collection of postcards created from negatives contained in its collection. The Mason City Public Library’s History Department is privileged to own tens of thousands of negatives taken by local photographers. Many of them were taken by Safford Lock, a prominent photographer of Mason City born in 1906. He was contracted by the Globe Gazette from 1934 -1947. Before his death in 1995, a compilation of his work was published locally under the title Mason City through the Lens of Safford Lock. It, along with several other similar books, can be viewed in the Archives & History Department on the west side of the Commons.
In November, the library displayed sixteen different images and asked the public for input regarding which eight would be reproduced. Black and white postcards of Engine 457, the Band Shell, Park 70 Theater and an aerial view of the library will be in one set. The other set will hold an image of an escape artist performing in a strait jacket suspended upside down from the First National Bank Building in 1938, a chimpanzee at the Mason City Fire Department, elephants walking down Federal Avenue in the early 1900’s and a boy with his dog.
The postcards are available in two sets of four for the price of $5 for a set at the Main Desk. All Proceeds will go to the library.
The Mason City Public Library is located at 225 2nd Street SE; hours are Monday-Wednesday 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. and Friday & Saturday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
