Elementary students have a blast as the holidays approach. I have it on good authority that classrooms glow with decorations while every desk sprouts a craft project. Furthermore, someone rolls a TV in to watch The Polar Express or Prancer, and students are set! Step back more than a century, though, to 1901, and a schoolhouse Christmas looked very different. Still, it was every bit as magical.

I started collecting courthouse postcards after I wrapped up visiting every historic courthouse in Indiana. Often, the postcards I found featured courthouses that were no longer standing. Then, out of the blue, someone reached out with hopes of publishing a modern update to the classic The Magnificent 92 Indiana courthouse book. He wanted to use my writing, and before I knew it, a proof copy showed up at my door. I mailed him my entire postcard collection -six or seven years ago now- and never heard a peep after that.