Sources / Postcards of Yost Park and Beloit (private collection)
Postcard: East Grand Ave., Beloit, Wis. (mailed 25 Sept. 1908)
Opening
East Grand Ave., Beloit, Wis.
Mailed 25 Sept. 1908 from Beloit. From M. O. G. to Mr. H. R. Gay, Wichita.
Card pc-006 · postmarked 1908-09-25 Beloit · front
The picture
A single-truck streetcar turning on curved track in the foreground of a wide unpaved street; ornate brick commercial blocks with a turreted corner building at left; a plain two-story corner block with a striped awning and an Emerson's Drug Store sign at right; utility poles and wires down the center.
- Printed caption: EAST GRAND AVE., BELOIT, WIS.
- Printing: colored halftone · color
- Lettering in the picture: EMERSON'S DRUG STORE (sign board, right)
- Condition: corner and edge wear; color printing slightly off-register (horizontal banding in the scan)
Card pc-006 · postmarked 1908-09-25 Beloit · back
The back
- Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
- Printed: Post Card · This Space for Address only.
- Stamp box: ruled box; a few vertical letters show at its left side ('. . S C O M F'), the rest hidden under the stamp
- Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin
- Postmark 1:
BELOIT / SEP 25 / [?]-30P / 19 08 / WIS(machine cancel with American flag killer) - Postmark 2:
WICHITA, KANS. / SEP / 27 / [illegible] / GENERAL DELIVERY.(receiving mark, double circle, magenta ink, General Delivery) - Condition: toning; light horizontal crease near upper right; message clipped at the left edge of the scan
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, across the sky, three lines, same hand and ink as the back):
I just got your letter & the money. Thank you dear.
You are so good. Write me a nice long letter.
I am true.
Message (back of the card, left half (left edge of the writing clipped by the scan)):
Dearest - I got the ring
[…]o-night & dear dear
[…]boy I was so pleased
[…]with it. It is fine
You are the dear-
[…]est boy in the world
[…]am mailing you
[…] letter too. The ring
[…]ould not have
[…]suited me better.
I am true as ever dear.
Lovingly M. O. G.
Address:
Mr. H. R. Gay,
Wichita,
Kansas.
General Delivery
A later hand (a dealer's price in pencil, right edge, beside 'Wichita'): $4⁰⁰
A later hand (pencil code, probably a dealer's or collector's mark, right edge, below the price, running off the edge): ASJ[?]
A later hand (small figures, probably a price; partly off the edge, front, extreme top left corner, before 'I just'): 1.30
Reading version
The message joined into sentences, the spelling lightly modernized only where it helps; uncertain words keep their marks.
Dearest - I got the ring [t]o-night and dear dear boy I was so pleased with it. It is fine. You are the dearest boy in the world. [I] am mailing you [a] letter too. The ring [c]ould not have suited me better. I am true as ever dear. Lovingly M. O. G. (On the front:) I just got your letter and the money. Thank you dear. You are so good. Write me a nice long letter. I am true.
Who
- H. R. Gay — recipient, Wichita, Kansas, General Delivery
- M. O. G. — sender
When
| How | Date | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| filename | 1908-09-25 | the date in the scan's file name |
| postmark | 1908-09-25 | postmark, as read: the day the card was mailed, not the day the picture was made |
| card-features | after 1907-03-01 | divided back: allowed in the US from 1 Mar. 1907 |
The readings
| Part | Status | Readers |
|---|---|---|
| caption | all agree | claude, gemini, gpt |
| postmark | majority | claude, gemini, gpt |
| address | majority | claude, gemini, gpt |
| message | crux (1 word still in question) | claude, gemini, gpt |
| signature | in message | claude, gemini, gpt |
Uncertain readings:
- front, line 2: me — a telegraph-pole crossarm in the picture runs through the word; it is not a strike-through
- later hand, right edge: ASJ (or AST, ASI) — faint pencil, runs off the edge
Reader's note: A love note: the writer thanks the recipient for a ring (and, on the front, a letter and money) and twice says 'I am true'. The sender's initials end in G, as does the recipient's surname (Gay). Sent General Delivery, received at Wichita Sep 27, two days after the Beloit postmark. The Beloit postmark reads Sep 25 1908. In the second line both words 'dear dear' are underlined.
Scans: 1908-09-25 - East Grand Ave., Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and 1908-09-25 - East Grand Ave., Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 5f744539b9d1…, 27a009c7e79b…). Media: front — the scan, byte for byte; back — the scan, byte for byte