Visit our online exhibit of these cards: Holy Cards as Objets Trouves.
When discovered wedged into returned library books, most “found” holy cards, if harmless (bookmarks, scraps of paper, postcards, letters, receipts, etc.) are simply tossed into a box to be eventually disposed of, sometimes decades later. For long years library staff here at Ireland Library have set aside hundreds of holy cards (in a box of course).
Some are beautiful (handmade paper lace cards, art nouveau, art deco, Italian and German chromolithographs), some have local associations (ordinations, funerals, anniversaries), some are rather odd, many are touching. All have a wonderful immediacy and embody popular piety in the very best sense of the word.

With the success of photo sharing on the web (the best known is Flickr, although we use SmugMug for its flexibility), our library now has an opportunity to share some cards with you.
A handicap is that these sites do not readily support a “two up” view of the card, the recto usually the image (either handmade or chromolithograph) and the verso often a prayer, petition, or occasion notice.
In some ways, too, as convenient as online display may be, the tactile nature of the holy card is missing – held in the hand, turned over, and read, or prayed these cards are somehow more like textiles and ceramics than many other art objects. To say nothing of their significance as devotional items! Some of the cards in our library exhibit signs of wear, having been held and faithfully used, thumbed, prayed, replaced, and held again.