Lifelong traveler displays postcard collection at Aiken County Public Library (2024)

An Aiken woman has always loved the mail.

Maryann Zeliznak, 70, worked 20 years for the U.S. Postal Service. She stopped working at age 40.

Zeliznak also likes to travel , collecting postcards from everywhere she goes.

That is, everywhere that still has postcards.

Many places Zeliznak now visits in the United States only offer digital postcards or none at all.

She has collected more than 10,000 postcards , and wanted to pay her hobby forward.

“Most people just put their postcards in a shoebox — that's stupid,” Zeliznak said. “I've been giving them to history teachers and nursery schools so that they could separate them by country and make things out of them.”

Zeliznak’s love for mail started first with pen pals.

Before working at the post office, she had dozens of pen pals from all over the world, she said.

She continues to cultivate pen pals today by using a website called Postcrossing, where random people send each other postcards, and thank you notes for each one they receive.

Zeliznak said she sends and receives 50 postcards a month.

“It is a great hobby to get something like this in the mail every day,” Zeliznak said. “You get something from the world in your mailbox, and some stranger wishing you a nice day.”

Zeliznak made an arrangement of her postcards now on display at the Aiken County Public Library. The postcards are on painted posters and other memorabilia from countries she has visited, including Bulgaria, Greece and England, to encourage more people to send postcards .

“There's not a place on earth where there is not something interesting to see,” Zeliznak said. “The town around the corner, you'll find something interesting, or you can ask a local. I truly believe there's something interesting everywhere.”

Zeliznak's postcards are on display on the second floor of the library through the end of June. The Aiken County Public Library is located at 314 Chesterfield St. S.W. For more information, visit abbe-lib.org.