Rock River Looking North, Beloit, Wis.

Mailed 22 May 1917 from Beloit. From Edna M. Buck[?] to Mrs. E. M. Gilbert, Ripon.

The picture

A calm, wide river running away from the viewer between heavily wooded banks, with a tall smokestack and a building just visible above the trees on the horizon.

• Printed caption: Rock River Looking North, Beloit, Wis.
• Printing: colored halftone · color
• Postmark ink on the picture: short bars of a machine cancel offset in the sky, upper left (from another card)
• Condition: small white chip or scuff at lower right corner

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: Post Card (green) · ADDRESS (green, rest of the line hidden under the postmark) · No. 207
• Stamp: 1c, green, Washington (profile, in oval)
• Postmark: BELOIT / MAY 22 / 10³⁰ PM / 1917 / WIS. (machine cancel with wavy-line killer)
• Condition: foxing and brown spotting; vertical bands of uneven toning across the message side; a sharp horizontal line about seven-eighths of the way down with darker toning below it (a crease or the edge of an old mounting strip), which the signature crosses

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 Friend.
Grandma &
leave here tomorrow.
Saw some work that
I believe the club could
handle nicely, can
tell you more about it
later.
Edna M. Buck[?]

Address:

Mrs. E. M. Gilbert
Ripon
Wis
R.F.D.

Reading version

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

Dear Friend. Grandma and leave here tomorrow. Saw some work that I believe the club could handle nicely, can tell you more about it later. Edna M. Buck[?]

Who

• Mrs. E. M. Gilbert — recipient, Ripon, Wis., R.F.D.
• Edna M. Buck[?] — sender
• Grandma — mentioned: travelling with the sender

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1917-05-22	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1917-05-22	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	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message	claude, gemini, gpt

Uncertain readings:

• signature, surname: Buck (or Buch, Bush) — the last letter is a looped ascender that could be k or h, and the line through it obscures the stroke
• message, line 2: Grandma & (or Grandma & I) — the ampersand ends in a long flourish; no separate 'I' is written, so the sentence reads 'Grandma & leave here tomorrow' as written
• address, line 4: R.F.D. — the F is written like a J

Reader's note: The writer and the recipient share a 'club'; the card does not say what kind. Nothing about Yost Park.

Scans: 1917-05-22 - Rock River Looking North, Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and 1917-05-22 - Rock River Looking North, Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 755c305802db…, c81c5b1acdd7…). Media: front — the scan, byte for byte; back — the scan, byte for byte