Sources / Postcards of Yost Park and Beloit (private collection)
Postcard: The Busy Street, Beloit, Wis. (mailed 15 Sept. 1909)
Opening
The Busy Street, Beloit, Wis.
Mailed 15 Sept. 1909 from Beloit. From Almon to Mrs Oscar Lundgren, Spencer.
Card pc-012 · postmarked 1909-09-15 Beloit · front
The picture
A crowded downtown street: a large crowd fills the roadway in front of a tall hotel-like building with two tiers of wooden balconies at left; a streetcar with a lifeguard fender comes toward the viewer on curving tracks, a second streetcar behind it; horse-drawn carriages at left and right; a woman in a long pale dress and plumed hat crosses the tracks in the foreground; a church or tower spire and a square tower rise in the distance.
- Printed caption: THE BUSY STREET, BELOIT, WIS.
- Publisher: E. C. KROPP CO. PUB. MILWAUKEE, No. 4394
- Number: 4394
- Printing: colored halftone · color
- Lettering in the picture: [illegible] (number board on the streetcar dash)
- Condition: light corner wear; faint horizontal scanning streaks
Card pc-012 · postmarked 1909-09-15 Beloit · back
The back
- Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
- Printed: Post Card · This Space for Address only
- Stamp box: [illegible] (a ruled frame behind the stamp; only a letter 'E' shows at its right edge)
- Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin (profile in an oval)
- Postmark:
BELOIT / SEP 15 / 12-M / 19 09 / WIS.(machine cancel with flag killer) - Condition: toning and soiling; a faint diagonal crease at the upper right corner
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):
Dear mother
Got here
Wedsday all
right like the
town Will
write again
later. Almon
Address:
Mrs Oscar Lundgren
Spencer
Wis
A later hand (pencil figures, probably a dealer's price or code, top edge, left of the stamp, cut off by the edge): 44[?]
Reading version
The message joined into sentences, the spelling lightly modernized only where it helps; uncertain words keep their marks.
Dear mother, Got here Wedsday all right. Like the town. Will write again later. Almon
Who
- Mrs Oscar Lundgren — recipient (addressed as 'Dear mother'), Spencer, Wis.
- Almon — sender, the recipient's child, Beloit, Wis. (postmark)
When
| How | Date | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| filename | 1909-09-15 | the date in the scan's file name |
| postmark | 1909-09-15 | 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 | crux (1 word still in question) | claude, gemini, gpt |
| message | crux (3 words still in question) | claude, gemini, gpt |
| signature | in message | claude, gemini |
Uncertain readings:
- later hand, top edge: 44 (or 47, 4 4) — the tops of the figures are cut off by the card's edge
Reader's note: A newcomer's card home: the writer has just arrived in Beloit and likes the town.
Scans: 1909-09-15 - The Busy Street, Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and 1909-09-15 - The Busy Street, Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 712e9840f307…, 3641dee4d177…). Media: front — the scan, byte for byte; back — the scan, byte for byte