Boat Landing at Yosts Park, between Janesville and Beloit

Mailed 9 Sept. 1909 from Beloit. From Frank K. to Miss Louise Hesse, Madison.

The picture

A grassy riverbank at a park landing: a launch with seated passengers and moored rowboats at a plank dock at left, men in dark suits standing on the bank, a dog on the dock, and a group of women in white with a parasol under large trees at right.

• Printed caption: BOAT LANDING AT YOSTS PARK, BETWEEN JANESVILLE AND BELOIT.
• Publisher: E. C. KROPP CO., PUB. MILWAUKEE, NO. 4839 (printed vertically up the left edge)
• Number: 4839
• Printing: colored halftone · color
• Condition: light corner wear; faint surface scuffs in the sky

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: Post Card · This Space for Address only.
• Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin (profile, in oval with laurel)
• Postmark: BELOIT / SEP 9 / 12-[3?]0P / 19 09 / WIS (machine cancel with American flag killer)
• Condition: toning; small ink smudges near 'year' and 'until'

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, written sideways, reading top to bottom (turn the card 90° counter-clockwise to read); lines run from the center divider leftward):

9-9-09.
Weather is pretty cool
down here lately. Last
meeting it rained & it is
the first bad evening
we've had for a year.
It was post-poned until
to-night.          Frank K.

Address:

Miss Louise Hesse
624 W. Dayton St.
Madison,
Wis.,

Reading version

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

9-9-09. Weather is pretty cool down here lately. Last meeting it rained and it is the first bad evening we've had for a year. It was postponed until to-night. Frank K.

Who

• Louise Hesse — recipient, 624 W. Dayton St., Madison, Wis.
• Frank K. — sender

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1909-09-09	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1909-09-09	postmark, as read: the day the card was mailed, not the day the picture was made
written	9-9-09	a date written by the sender
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	all agree	claude, gemini, gpt
message	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message	claude, gemini

Uncertain readings:

• message, line 6: we've (or weve) — the apostrophe is not clearly separate from the v
• postmark, time: 12-[3?]0P (or 12-00P) — the minute digit is faint and crossed by the written date

Reader's note: The message does not mention Yost Park; it reports a rained-out meeting held in the evenings, postponed to 'to-night'. 'Down here' suggests the writer thinks of Beloit as south of the recipient (Madison). Written date 9-9-09 agrees with the postmark.

Other copies of this view

Scans of the same printed picture that are not cards of this collection (matched by picture fingerprint):

• 1909 Boat Landing Yosts Park WI Wisconsin Kropp Co (A2)-b.png — source, back
• 1909 Boat Landing Yosts Park WI Wisconsin Kropp Co (A2).png — source, front
• postcard-yost-park.png — source, front
• postcard-kropp-4839-boat-landing-at-yosts-park-copy-2 (postcard-kropp-4839-boat-landing-at-yosts-park-copy-2-back.png) — vault image, back
• postcard-kropp-4839-boat-landing-at-yosts-park-copy-2 (postcard-kropp-4839-boat-landing-at-yosts-park-copy-2-front.png) — vault image, front
• postcard-kropp-4839-boat-landing-at-yosts-park (postcard-kropp-4839-boat-landing-at-yosts-park.jpg) — vault image, front

Scans: 1909-09-09 - Boat Landing at Yosts Park, between Janesville and Beloit - 01.png and 1909-09-09 - Boat Landing at Yosts Park, between Janesville and Beloit - 02.png (sha256 01c6def4278f…, ad0006a1e459…). Media: front — the scan, byte for byte; back — the scan, byte for byte