Deltiology is the study and collecting of postcards.

At its heart, The Humboldt Project (THP) is a conceptual art piece.  The concept: what would happen if you began collecting and compiling postcards of Humboldt County and surrounding areas?  What would you discover?  How would it affect you?  How would it affect others?  What began from curiosity quickly morphed from hobby to habit.  The collection now stands at well over 10,000 cards, acquired one by one over nearly 20 years, primarily via eBay.  We are obsessed with sharing and committed to celebrating local history with everyone.

Week by week, the collection continues to grow.

We believe that within a year of residency, newcomers who choose to stay are infected with a deep and abiding interest in this great place we call Humboldt.  Not long after we started collecting local postcards we began showing them off to others.  Whether to colleagues, co-workers, strangers, or friends, we quickly discovered that local historical images drew real interest and fascination.  Feeling increasingly obliged to make them publicly accessible we began scanning cards in an effort to build an online archive through the thehumboldtproject.org website.  We also started making high quality prints from scans of cards in the collection and handing them out around Humboldt to people we meet.  After sharing thousands of cards with people in person and online, it has become clear that there is a real thirst for history and geography amongst all Humboldters, past and present.

We find this place fascinating and special (we all do)

Since October 2022, THP has maintained an instagram account where we post scans of sent cards from the collection, on the anniversary of their postmarks, with now over 900 posts to date covering nearly every day of the Calendar year.  We also enjoy sharing videos of cards out in the wild during field trips to their original locations/points of origin.  Initially established in 2010, the website was revamped and relaunched in late 2024 and now hosts over 2000 scans of postcards and materials from the collection.

We hope after giving these images a look you feel affected, somehow different.  Welcome to the club.