Editorial: U of I wrong home for renowned postcard archives

Picture postcards were the pre-Facebook way to brag about your vacation to people who were stuck back at home or in the office. Some showed dramatic landscapes or points of civic pride, and many others were product advertisements.

The sender chose a card, wrote a greeting, added an address and stamp and dropped it in a mailbox. Eventually, about 3 million of those wound up in the Curt Teich Postcard Archives, a world-renowned collection housed at the Lake County Discovery Museum near Wauconda.

Now, the Lake County Forest Preserve District is considering giving away the collection and its endowment, which amounts to about $522,000.

It's part of an effort to pare down and "re-envision" the entire Lake County Discovery Museum, including moving it from historic farm buildings in Lakewood Forest Preserve to an office building in Libertyville, where forest preserve offices moved in 2011.

We think the museum move deserves another look, but in particular we urge the forest preserve board to give more thought to a proposal to give the Curt Teich Archives and the endowment to the University of Illinois, which would welcome the postcards as an "extraordinary addition" to its archives and library, according to the forest preserve district. But Illinois' financial problems could make U of I a gamble as a curator and exhibitor of this valuable collection.

Earlier this month, U of I and the state's six other public universities warned they are "on the brink of serious operational damage" because state funding halted during a budget impasse that's now in its fourth month.

Meanwhile, Gov. Bruce Rauner closed the Illinois State Museum and four other state-run museums last month. It seems rash to turn over the Curt Teich Archives for safekeeping to an institution run by a broke state that has a poor recent history of respecting its historical heritage.

Forest Preserve Executive Director Ty Kovach says moving the museum's collections will cost $800,000 less if the Curt Teich Archives isn't part of it. But we urge Kovach and the board to think carefully before giving away the postcard collection, which has postcards from around the globe but includes many depicting Lake County.

Then, if board members still think the Curt Teich Archives doesn't fit the forest preserve district's mission, how about looking for a recipient that's closer to home than Champaign and largely independent of state funding?

We've been unconvinced by arguments for moving the entire Lake County Discovery Museum, especially as plans to expand the museum in the new Libertyville office building have gone by the wayside and the forest preserve district moves toward downsizing exhibit space.

While reconsidering the fate of the Curt Teich Archives, maybe the board should re-examine plans for the move, too.