E. Grand Ave. from the Bridge, Beloit, Wis.

Mailed 23 March 1908 from Dallas. From Belle to Mrs. Susie Hanger, Hartford.

The picture

Looking up East Grand Avenue from the bridge end: two- and three-story brick commercial blocks with awnings on the left, a street-railway track down the center of the unpaved street, poles and overhead wires, a turreted corner block in the middle distance on the right.

• Printed caption: E. GRAND AVE. FROM THE BRIDGE, BELOIT, WIS.
• Publisher: THE BELOIT NOVELTY STORE, BELOIT, WIS
• Printing: halftone · monochrome
• Lettering in the picture: […]CO. (sign at top left); […]ALE BAKER / W[…]L[?] (owl eyes) OW / […]GAR … CIGA[…] / […] 5¢ NOW (painted wall advertisement with a clock, left); 5-10 CENT STORE. (projecting sign, left); […]NS (lettering on a store front, left); BILL[?]-JOE / THE / HABERDASHERS (diamond sign, right); PANTATORIUM (sign, right)
• Condition: creases and a tear-like crease in the bottom strip near the imprint; soiling and staining in the sky; a small mirror-reversed lettering mark ('MAW[?]', reversed) on the sidewalk at lower left, possibly ink offset from another item

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: Post Card · The space above is reserved for Postmark · THIS SPACE IS RESERVED FOR MESSAGE. · THIS SPACE FOR ADDRESS ONLY.
• Stamp box: P[…] (printed box; the rest is under the stamp)
• Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin
• Postmark 1: DALLAS, / MAR / 23[?] / [illegible] / 1908 / WIS. (circular date stamp with vertical bar killer, struck faintly in grey)
• Postmark 2: [illegible] DAK. / MAR / 24 / 9 AM / 1908 / REC'D. (receiving mark (REC'D.), double-struck so a second, shifted impression overlaps the first)
• Postmark 3: MISSENT TO / MITC[…]L. S. D. (two-line straight-line handstamp in violet ink, 'missent' marking)
• Condition: toning and soiling; a crease running across the address area; wear at the lower left corner; the ends of several message lines run off the lower edge of the card

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 (back of the card, left half, message space, written sideways, reading top to bottom (turn the card 90 degrees counterclockwise to read)):

Mar 23, 1908
Dear Sister:-
Will write in a few days. […]
Grace says she will write tonig[…]
well as usual. this is a lovely[?] […]
morn. was at Barron Sat[?].-Both[?] w[…]
Th. we had one of those spells[?] in
[illegible]. Belle.

Address:

Mrs. Susie Hanger
Hartford
S. Dakota

A later hand (pencil notation, probably a dealer's or collector's code, top edge, above the machine cancel bars): 7-AS15[?]

Reading version

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

Mar 23, 1908. Dear Sister: Will write in a few days. […] Grace says she will write tonig[…] well as usual. This is a lovely[?] […] morn. Was at Barron Sat[?]. Both[?] w[…] Th. we had one of those spells[?] in [illegible]. Belle.

Who

• Mrs. Susie Hanger — recipient, Hartford, S. Dakota
• Belle — sender
• Grace — mentioned in the message

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1908-03-24	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1908-03-23	postmark, as read: the day the card was mailed, not the day the picture was made
postmark	1908-03-24	postmark, as read: the day the card was mailed, not the day the picture was made
written	Mar 23, 1908	a date written by the sender
card-features	after 1907-03-01	divided back: allowed in the US from 1 Mar. 1907

• ⚠ file name says 1908-03-24, postmark reads 1908-03-23

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	claude, gemini

Uncertain readings:

• postmark 1, day: 23 (or 28) — the second digit is faint and crossed by the cancel bars
• postmark 3, town: MITC[…]L (or MITCHELL) — the middle letters are faded
• address, line 1, surname: Hanger (or Hauger) — the third letter could be n or u
• message, line 5: lovely[?] (or lonely) — the word is faint and runs toward the edge
• message, line 6: Sat[?].-Both[?] (or Saf., Sat.-Bob, Sat.-Bell) — the last letter of the first word looks like f or t; the next word is faint
• message, line 7: spells[?] (or squalls) — the word is faint and partly over a stain
• message, last line: [illegible] (or Ind Office, the office, Africa) — faint pencil at the card's top edge; letters look like 'Ind Ofic a'

Reader's note: The card was mailed at Dallas, Wis. (the message mentions Barron, which suggests Barron County) and not at Beloit. It carries a violet 'MISSENT TO MITC[…]L S. D.' handstamp and a South Dakota receiving mark of MAR 24 1908. The writer addresses the recipient as 'Sister'. The message is in faint pencil, written sideways, and several line ends run off the card.

Scans: 1908-03-24 - E. Grand Ave. from the Bridge, Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and 1908-03-24 - E. Grand Ave. from the Bridge, Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 59987327fbe7…, 28b5aaa4d712…). Media: front — the scan, byte for byte; back — the scan, byte for byte