Kathy Alpert began collecting postcards in the early 1990s, initially drawn to images of Boston’s West End—a neighborhood demolished during urban renewal. What started as a personal connection to a lost landscape evolved into a scholarly pursuit spanning women’s suffrage, social clubs, romantic correspondence, and the material culture of everyday life.

Her collection grew to encompass over 15,000 postcards and ephemera items, with particular strengths in women’s organizations, New England regional history, and the “W Towns” (Weston, Wellesley, Watertown, and others). The archive documents social networks, holiday traditions, leap year customs, and the voices of women who used postcards as tools of connection and advocacy.

From the demolished West End to the immigrant enclaves that shaped the city’s character, this book reveals how postcards—often dismissed as trivial—served as chronicles of social change, urban renewal, and collective memory.

Featuring over 200 postcards from the Alpert Collection, many reproduced in full color for the first time, Lost and Found offers scholars, collectors, and general readers a new lens on American history.

The book includes historical context, archival research, and personal reflections on the act of collecting itself—what it means to preserve what others discard.

In 2024, the Library Company of Philadelphia acquired the Alpert Collection, recognizing its significance for scholars of women’s history, visual culture, and American social life. The collection is now accessible to researchers and has been featured in exhibitions and digital projects.

Kathy’s first book, Lost and Found: Historic Boston and Postcards, was published in April 2026 by PostMark Press. She speaks regularly at museums, libraries, historical societies, and collector groups, offering insight into the hidden narratives within ephemera.