Edward Gibbon the historian kept his library catalogue on the backs of
playing cards. There is a picture of it in the book "Treasures of the
British Library". The cards are now bound up in a book, but I don't
suppose they started that way.
I wonder whether playing cards came in sufficiently standard sizes that he
could guarantee being able to get them exactly the same again when he needed
another pack?
Elizabeth Quarmby Lawrence
At 11:50 AM 3/28/02 +0100, you wrote:
>I have discovered that by 1892 henri Otlet was already thinking in
>terms
>of using cards as the basis of his grand bibliographic enterprise.
>(FID
>publication 520, pp32 -35).
>Hello, libhist listers.
>
>Can you help with a query I received, originally about Paul Otlet
>(founder of UDC), who was working on a card catalogue in the 1890s?
>
>The inquirer asked, among other things:
>"When, and by whom, was the standard 3" * 5" (75mm * 125mm) card
>introduced ?"
>
>We think the 'who' was Melvil Dewey (who favoured the metric rather
>than the inch version), but can anyone tell us when and how the standard
>was arrived at?
>
>Thanks
>Geoffrey Robinson
>
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