Linck and Binns family postcards, 1909-1958 (bulk 1909-1920)
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Arrangement: Chronological, with undated items placed at back of collection.

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

Housed in a binder album, in polypropylene sleeves, four to a page.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: Postcards, most written by Volney Linck to members of the Binns, Gant, and Linck families of Nashville, Tenn. Although the collection as a whole spans from 1909 to 1958, the bulk of the collection and Volney's correspondence runs from 1909 to 1920. Volney traveled widely and the postcards depict and come from a variety of places, including: California and Los Angeles; Ontario, Canada; New York City; Taboga Island, Panama; Florida; Louisiana; Hot Springs, Ark. and numerous other places. Limited circumstantial evidence indicates he may have been a traveling musician. A few postcards are actual photographic prints, including one or two images of Volney, although most cards are of the mass-produced variety for tourists depicting city scenes and attractions. Volney wrote frequently while training in the Army at Fort Riley, Kansas in 1917, and his postcards show a variety of scenes on post and in the surrounding area. A few cards, 1917-1918, are of French origin and sent from France, including a particularly noteworthy one dated May 20, 1918 in which Volney reports his throat is irritated from a gas attack. A few postcards are written by J.T. Binns, Emma Phelps, or others.

Recipients, most of whom lived in Nashville, Tenn., include: Amelia Allen; Henry L. Binns; J.T. Binns; James L. Binns; Mamie (Mrs. W.A.) Binns; Mary Binns; W.A. Binns; Dot Gant; J.V. Gant; Lottie Louise Gant; Mary Esther Gant; and Mr. and Mrs. H.L. Linck.

Cite as: Linck and Binns Family Postcards, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials.

Doloris VanCleave;,Gift;,2008.,Acc. 2008.042.

Related Materials: The Binns and Pellettieri Families Genealogies collection is held by the Nashville Public Library.

Volney Linck was born in December 1878 in Tennessee, the son of Henry and Mary Linck who resided in Columbia, Maury County, Tenn. in 1900. Volney traveled throughout the United States in the first two decades of the twentieth century, and sent many postcards back to the Binns and Gant families who by then lived in Nashville, Tenn. He also apparently served in the U.S. Army during World War I, probably in the Signal Corps. His older sister, Henrietta, known as "Etta" married Anthony Pillow Gant around 1895, and they appear in the 1910 Federal census, living in Nashville, when Henry and Mary Linck were also living with them. Etta and Pillow had several children, including a son, George (b. ca. 1899), daughter Lottie Louise (b. ca. 1902), James V. (b. ca. 1908), and daughter, Mary Esther (b. 1910). W. A. Binns married Mamie Linck and had children named James T. (b. 1894) and Mary (b. ca. 1899), and they lived in Nashville, next door to the Gants.

Bulk in English with small portions in French.

Deloris VanCleave obtained these postcards from an unidentified antique shop in Kentucky at an unknown date.

Process;,2011;,Linda Barnickel.

No further accruals are expected.