Bell Historical Postcard Collection

Bell Historical Postcard Collection consists of 344 postcards, bromides, and prints that were created before WWII. Most of the postcards were created in Japan along with some made in Hawai'i, China, and Taiwan (Formosa).

The original postcard scrapbook was donated to the Japanese Culture Center of Hawai'i (JCCH) by Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth and Carole Bell in 1993. The album originally belonged to Mrs. Bell’s father. According to the document provided by Mrs. Bell, her father made a trip in 1920s to Hawai'i, Yokohama, Nagasaki, Kobe Japan, Formosa and Shanghai, however, the scrapbook also contains the postcards created in 1930s.

In 2017, the scrapbook was donated by JCCH to the Japan Collection of the UHM Asia Collection Department.

Permission

No permission is needed if the images will be used for non-commercial educational purposes,
such as class lectures, students' presentations, and academic conference presentations, but please credit the images with the sentence: "From the Bell Historical Postcard Collection, courtesy of the UHM Library Asia Collection."

When the images will be used in books, newspapers, documentaries, films, or any other forms of media, the users must obtain permission by writing the UHM Library Asia Collection. In the request, please explain the topic, image reference number, and the type of media/print.

Digitization Procedures

Project Leader: Tokiko Y. Bazzell, Japan Studies Librarian
Project Member: Nanae Sajiki (student assistant)

Advisors: Sadie Rosen (Metadata), Daniel Ishimitsu (OMEKA), & Lynn Davis (Hawaiian postcards)
Scanner: Epson DS-50000 flatbed scanner
Scanning specs: 400 dpi, 48 color bits, TIFF for preservation, TIFF images were converted to JPEG for this site. No manipulation of original photo images.
Metadata: Dublin Core standard, subjects were created in-house specific for the postcards
Integrity: Reference numbers are assigned based on the original order of the postcard in the scrapbook. For documentation purposes, each page of the scrapbook was photographed and each postcard was carefully removed, scanned, and returned to the scrapbook.

The year each postcard was created was estimated based on the postcard address side convention. When a date is not determined, a blank space is left:

Titles: Titles are provided from the postcards’ descriptions. When no titles are provided, a descriptive title is created and presented in brackets.