C. M. & St. P. Depot, Beloit, Wis.

Mailed July 1922 from Beloit. to Miss Norma Porath, Owen.

The picture

A red-roofed brick passenger depot with deep platform canopies and flowering shrubs, a fenced lawn and a long platform walk at left center, and a steam locomotive with a train of coaches arriving on curving track at right, smoke rising before a tall grain elevator or tower building.

• Printed caption: C. M. & St. P. Depot, Beloit, Wis.—286
• Number: 286
• Printing: white border · color
• Lettering in the picture: BELOIT (station name board on the depot, left)
• Condition: corner wear, most at upper right and lower left; light soiling on the white border

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: Post Card (green) · C (small, below 'Card')
• Stamp: 1c, green, Washington (profile, in oval)
• Postmark: BELOIT, WIS. / JUL [?]1 / 5-PM / 1922 (machine cancel with wavy-line killer)
• Condition: toning; faint brownish strokes and loops lie under the message (an offset, bleed or erased earlier writing), not readable

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 (last line runs off the right edge of the message side)):

Friday - July 21 - '22
Dear Norma - Rec'd
your letter and
was so glad to hear
from you will surely
answer it very shortly
The little picture is
fine; thank you so
much. Hot is every-
thing now.
Robert Fuller is
at home and Mrs Flynns
sister is here from Chicago
wants us to come over
this P.M. as must stop[?] down[?] [illegible] […]

Address:

Miss Norma Porath
c/o Clark Co Asylum
Owen
Wis.

Reading version

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

Friday - July 21 - '22. Dear Norma - Rec'd your letter and was so glad to hear from you, will surely answer it very shortly. The little picture is fine; thank you so much. Hot is everything now. Robert Fuller is at home and Mrs Flynn's sister is here from Chicago, wants us to come over this P.M. as must stop[?] down[?] [illegible] […]

Who

• Norma Porath — recipient, c/o Clark Co Asylum, Owen, Wis.
• Robert Fuller — mentioned: is at home
• Mrs Flynn — mentioned: her sister is visiting from Chicago

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1922-07-21	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1922-07	postmark, as read: the day the card was mailed, not the day the picture was made
written	Friday - July 21 - '22	a date written by the sender
card-features	after 1907-03-01	divided back: allowed in the US from 1 Mar. 1907
card-features	after 1915 to before 1930	white-border era (about 1915 to 1930)

The readings

Part	Status	Readers
caption	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
postmark	crux (the day still in question)	claude, gemini, gpt
address	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
message	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message	gemini

Uncertain readings:

• postmark, day: None (or 21, 11, 31) — the first digit is under the printed P; only a final 1 shows
• message, last line: as must stop[?] down[?] [illegible] (or as we must stop off, as must stop down off) — cramped, smudged writing at the bottom edge, running off to the right; no signature is visible
• message, line 9: Hot is (or Hot as) — the vowel is a small loop
• message, line 12: Flynns (or Flynn) — the final s is a short tail

Reader's note: Addressed in care of the Clark County Asylum at Owen, Wis.; the card does not say whether Norma Porath was a patient or an employee. The written date 'Friday July 21 '22' matches the postmark's month, final day digit and year. The sender's name is not on the card.

Scans: 1922-07-21 - C. M. & St. P. Depot, Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and 1922-07-21 - C. M. & St. P. Depot, Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 81f11defdc28…, 1f002ba20cac…). Media: front — the scan, byte for byte; back — the scan, byte for byte