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Title
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A Visit with the "Postcard Lady": Postcard Lady Still Lives for Today
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Description
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Photos and biographical article about Mildred Kittell Ray, or Mildred Ray (ca. 1895-1996), known as Mrs. Sam Ray in her articles in the Kansas City Star. The articles started about 1976 and depicted and described postcards of scenes of Kansas City's past, with the articles later compiled into books.
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Date
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1988-10-12
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Object Type
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Newspaper Article
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Title
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Mildred (Mrs. Sam) Kittell Ray
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Description
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Interior view showing Mildred Ray seated on sofa in her apartment in Kingswood Manor, a senior living community located in Kansas City, Missouri. The photograph is dated September 27, 1993. Mrs. Ray would have just turned 98 years of age when the picture was taken.
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Date
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1993
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Object Type
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Photograph
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Title
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SC58 Mrs. Sam Ray Postcard Collection Finding Aid
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Description
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Mildred Kittell Ray was born in Halstead, Kansas, on September 22, 1895. An avid collector of postcards (buttons, too), Mrs. Ray, at the age of 72, initiated a column in the Kansas City Times and Kansas City Star entitled "A Postcard from Old Kansas City." The columns ran for 23 years. They proved to be extremely popular with the reading public, and two selected sets of articles were collected and published in book form; the first volume won a national design award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts. The collection consists of over 16,000 postcards and materials associated with Mrs. Ray's writing career. Subjects in the postcards include Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas, the other states of the US, a large number of foreign countries, an assortment of different topics (humor, holidays, etc.), and card format (wood, leather, copper, etc.). Items related to Mrs. Ray's career as a writer include: correspondence; research materials such as newspaper clippings and handwritten notes; draft, manuscript, and published versions of early "pre-postcard" historical articles; postcard articles that were rejected by the publisher; and the texts of lectures and presentations given by Mrs. Ray. Graphic materials make up another part of the collection, with items like advertising envelopes, ephemera from Emery, Bird, Thayer, and a number of photographs. An audiotape of a speech given by Dick Ray (Mrs. Ray's son), on February 13, 1998, at the official debut of the Library's online version of the newspaper column is included in the collection.
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Date
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1890/1998
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Object Type
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Finding Aid
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Title
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Mrs. Sam Ray Postcards
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Description
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A 2 volume collection of photocopies of portions of the column "A Postcard from Old Kansas City" from the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times. Authored by Mrs. Sam (Mildred Kittell) Ray, the column depicted a vintage postcard from Kansas City's past and included an historical article detailing some aspect of the image. The clippings are arranged by subject, and each is annotated with its date and source of publication. The entire Mrs. Sam Ray collection of postcards is located in Special Collections.
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Date
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1976/1998
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Object Type
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Newspaper Article
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Title
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Mildred (Mrs. Sam) Kittell Ray
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Description
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Mildred Kittell Ray, known as Mrs. Sam Ray, with postcard in hand standing by wooden cabinet with drawers containing her postcard collection. Location not given but presumably photograph was taken at her home. Back of photograph is stamped "Feb. 3, 1982."
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Date
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1982
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Object Type
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Photograph
