Bird's-Eye View of Beloit

Mailed 9 Nov. 1905 from Beloit. to Mrs. J. B. Anderson, Armada.

The picture

Elevated view over a downtown block of two- and three-story commercial buildings and a wide street with a square of open ground, the river beyond with a dam or weir and bridge, and residential districts with a large institutional building on the far bank.

• Printed caption: BIRD'S- EYE VIEW OF BELOIT.
• Publisher: E. C. KROPP, MILWAUKEE. (small, lower left, partly under the handwriting)
• Printing: halftone · monochrome
• Lettering in the picture: …BREWERY (wall sign, far left); HOTEL (wall sign, right edge)
• Condition: slight edge wear; scan or card cut close at the bottom, so the second line of writing is clipped

The back

• Layout: undivided back (the whole back for the address)
• Printed: Post Card (ornamental script, brown, upper left) · THIS SIDE IS EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE ADDRESS.
• Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin
• Postmark: BELOIT / NOV 9 / 12-30P / 19 [0?]5 / WI[S] (machine cancel with American flag killer (numeral 1 in the flag stripes))
• Condition: even toning; light soiling

Exact copy

Line for line as written. [?] follows an uncertain word; [illegible] marks one that cannot be read; ~~ ~~ is crossed out, ^ ^ written above the line, […] runs off the card.

Message (front of the card, white strip below the picture, upper right):

Oct 8 05

Message (front of the card, white strip below the picture, two lines across the full width, running off the bottom edge):

This is rather a nice city. I am
just leaving for Janesville Dean […]

Address:

Mrs. J. B. Anderson
Armada, Mich.

Reading version

The message joined into sentences, the spelling lightly modernized only where it helps; uncertain words keep their marks.

(Message is on the front.) Oct 8 05. This is rather a nice city. I am just leaving for Janesville. Dean […]

Who

• Mrs. J. B. Anderson — recipient, Armada, Mich.

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1905-11-09	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1905-11-09	postmark, as read: the day the card was mailed, not the day the picture was made
written	Oct 8 05	a date written by the sender
card-features	before 1907-03-01	undivided back: printed for the rules before 1 Mar. 1907 (a printing date, not a use date)

The readings

Part	Status	Readers
caption	all agree	claude, gemini, gpt
postmark	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
address	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
message	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message

Uncertain readings:

• address, line 1, first initial: J (or S, L) — a looped capital with a cross-stroke
• front, line 2, first word: just — written over the printed publisher imprint

Reader's note: Message written on the front below the picture, as required on undivided-back cards. Written date Oct 8 05 but postmarked Nov 9: a month apart. The second line of writing is cut by the bottom edge of the scan, so the message may continue (possibly a signature) beyond what is visible.

Scans: 1905-11-09 - Bird's-Eye View of Beloit - 01.png and 1905-11-09 - Bird's-Eye View of Beloit - 02.png (sha256 375e5c06d88b…, 792d5e324cfb…). Media: front — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 0, 1080, 702]; back — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 0, 1079, 702]