Grand Avenue, Beloit, Wis.

Mailed 1913 from ?. From C. Enghof[?] to Mr. V. Meyer, Chicago.

The picture

Looking down Grand Avenue between two- and three-story commercial blocks: awnings and hanging signs on both sides, curving street-railway tracks in the street, a horse and covered carriage at left, wagons in the middle distance, a large block with a small cupola at the far end, under a blue sky shading to pink at the horizon.

• Printed caption: 2977. Grand Avenue, Beloit, Wis.
• Number: 2977
• Printing: colored halftone · color
• Lettering in the picture: […]ES (awning, far left); CHIROPRACTIC INFIRMARY (hanging sign, left); CANDY (awning, left); […]KEENE[?] (sign, left middle distance); […]UNGER'S RESTAURANT (sign, right)
• Condition: light wear at the edges; some color banding in the street area of the scan

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: Post Card · THIS SIDE FOR THE ADDRESS
• Stamp: 1c, green, Washington
• Postmark 1: BEL[…] / MAY 29 / 9 30PM / WIS. (machine cancel: circular date stamp with straight parallel killer bars running left across 'Post Card')
• Postmark 2: 1913 (small black handstamped year, set at an angle beside the oval cancel below the stamp; it is not inside the Beloit circle)
• Postmark 3: (oval of bars with a numeral 1 in a central circle) (oval barred obliterator with numeral '1', struck below and touching the stamp)
• Postmark 4: […]PM (partial strike of a circular postmark (only an arc and 'PM'), in the message area)
• Condition: toning; light soiling; a stain at the lower 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 part of the back, left of the red dividing line; the line ends run off the top edge of the card, written sideways, reading bottom to top (turn the card 90 degrees clockwise to read)):

Beloit Wis May
29[?] […]
It seems good to be out in the Count[…]
again It is big doings here to night Circ[…]
and I arrived all in one night. I am
working for the Fairbanks will stay about
tree weeks than I am going to La Cro[…]
and up to Minn. Hope to hear from
you I remain
#746 Fourth St
C. Enghof[?]
Beloit Wis.

Address:

Mr. V. Meyer
#1702. Foster av.
Chicago
Ill.

A later hand (pencil price, '$6' with raised '00', bottom right corner): $6⁰⁰

A later hand (a single pencil letter; it may be the sender's or a later mark, under 'SIDE' in 'THIS SIDE FOR THE ADDRESS'): C

Reading version

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

Beloit, Wis., May 29[?]. It seems good to be out in the Count[…] again. It is big doings here tonight, Circ[…] and I arrived all in one night. I am working for the Fairbanks, will stay about tree [three] weeks, than I am going to La Cro[…] and up to Minn. Hope to hear from you. I remain, C. Enghof[?], #746 Fourth St, Beloit, Wis.

Who

• Mr. V. Meyer — recipient, 1702 Foster Av., Chicago, Ill.
• C. Enghof[?] — sender, 746 Fourth St, Beloit, Wis.
• the Fairbanks — mentioned in the message as the writer's employer (a firm or family; the card does not say which)

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1913-05-29	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1913	postmark, as read: the day the card was mailed, not the day the picture was made
written	May 29[?]	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	single reader	claude, gemini, gpt
address	crux (1 word still in question)	claude, gemini, gpt
message	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message	claude, gemini

Uncertain readings:

• message, date: 29[?] (or 2[…]) — the second digit runs off the top edge of the card
• message, line 3, end: Count[…] (or Country, Game) — the word runs off the top edge
• message, line 4, end: Circ[…] (or Circus, Cisti) — the word runs off the top edge
• message, line 6: Fairbanks (or Fairbank) — the end of the word runs into a smudge
• message, signature: C. Enghof[?] (or C. Engholz, C. Engholt, S. Enghof) — the last letters run under the cancel bars

Reader's note: The Beloit circle carries no year; the year 1913 comes only from a separate small handstamp beside the oval numeral cancel. The writer says 'I arrived all in one night' with something that 'is big doings here tonight' (the word beginning 'Circ' runs off the card), is working 'for the Fairbanks' for about three weeks, and then going to La Cro[sse?] and Minnesota. 'tree' and 'than' are the writer's spellings.

Scans: 1913-05-29 - Grand Avenue, Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and 1913-05-29 - Grand Avenue, Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 0c9ecae3e249…, 03c1e6b76393…). Media: front — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 0, 1084, 688]; back — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 0, 1083, 688]