Acquired Midcentury Oak Modular Library Card Catalog

30 drawers of filing space for 3x5 inch index cards.
Modular set up in 4 pieces including two sections of 5 columns of drawers in three rows each.
Assembled dimensions: 33″ wide x 17 3/8″ deep and stands 43 1/2″ tall.
Primarily composed of quarter sawn oak.

I’ve expanded my index card database storage by 30 new drawers of 13 3/4″ of space each.

This model appears to be a Gaylord Bros. card index, but is missing explicit badging. It has the appropriate size for the modular Gaylord system and seems to be missing a few pieces including some of the dovetail pieces which would typically hold the unit securely together. Sadly, it’s also missing all the card rods. The top seems to have been added from another unit and has a large crack in it. A few of the drawers need some minor nail and/or gluing attention.

It’s definitely in rougher condition than my first Gaylord card index. The piece needs a fair amount of refurbishment work. The stain has gone a tad to the green side, but I’m on the fence about stripping, sanding, and re-staining the whole thing. I am considering refurbishing one section and adding it to my primary Gaylord cabinet as I think the two would match up very well.

It’s in functional and usable shape, so I spent a couple hours blowing it out with my air compressor, cleaning it off, fixing a few nails, and giving it a much needed coat of furniture polish.

I was happy to pick it up for a price tag of $200 (or $6.66 per drawer), though it may have been a bit much for something in this condition compared to prior purchases. The seller did mention that they had more than six interested parties at this price within just two hours of listing, so I suppose I’m lucky that I saw it and responded as quickly as I did. Of course within that timeframe it was in my vehicle and headed home.

The base has a property tag from the city of Arcadia, but the owner has had it for the past 30 years and was using it primarily for baseball card storage.

New Grand Total

Recalculating from my collection of card indexes, I think this new cabinet brings my total up to 10 “boxes” with a total of 107 drawers featuring almost 160 linear feet of index card storage space. This comes out to the possibility of storing 265,475 index cards, with a cost per drawer hovering around $11.00 and still dropping.