Basford Beach Looking Toward Big Hill, Beloit, Wis.

Mailed 3 Sept. 1929 from Beloit. From Julius[?] to Miss Clara Mann, Portland.

The picture

A grassy bank in the foreground with a man in a white shirt seated in a long brown rowboat, holding an oar; across a wide calm river a high wooded hill in green and autumn colors slopes down to the right; a wooden pier with a tall timber diving tower stands in the water at right, and a low float or raft lies near the far shore.

• Printed caption: Basford Beach looking toward "Big Hill", Beloit, Wis.—38
• Number: 38
• Printing: white border · color
• Condition: small dark specks in the sky (surface dirt or printing flecks); light corner wear

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: 4722-N · POST CARD
• Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin
• Postmark: BELOIT, WIS. / SEP 3 / 2³⁰ PM / 1929 (machine cancel: circular date stamp with wavy-line killer)
• Condition: light toning; the bottom edge of the card cuts through the last line of writing

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, message space; the first two lines run under the postmark and the last line runs off the bottom edge):

Dear Cla[…]
We are hav[…]
a few days of
rest at the wonder-
ful city of Beloit
Wis. but nothing
like the time we
had in Portland Julius[?]

Address:

Miss Clara Mann
1919 E Stark St
Portland
Oregon.

Reading version

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

Dear Cla[ra?], We are hav[ing] a few days of rest at the wonderful city of Beloit, Wis. but nothing like the time we had in Portland. Julius[?]

Who

• Miss Clara Mann — recipient, 1919 E Stark St, Portland, Oregon
• Julius[?] — sender (if the last word is a signature)

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1929-09-03	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1929-09-03	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
card-features	after 1915 to before 1930	white-border era (about 1915 to 1930)

The readings

Part	Status	Readers
caption	all agree	claude, gemini, gpt
postmark	all agree	claude, gemini, gpt
address	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
message	crux (2 words still in question)	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message	claude, gemini

Uncertain readings:

• message, line 1: Cla[…] (or Clara) — the end of the name is under the postmark
• message, last line, last word: Julius[?] (or July, Jules, a signature continuing off the card) — the line is cut by the bottom edge; it may be the signature or the start of a further phrase
• address, line 2: 1919 (or 1719) — the third figure is written quickly

Reader's note: A visitor's card: the writer is resting a few days in Beloit and recalls an earlier time in Portland, Oregon. The writing is in faint pencil.

Other copies of this view

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

• 7860_Basford_Beach_-_Big_Hill_at_left_-_postcard.rev.1619470596.webp — source, front
• Postcard "Basford Beach Looking toward Big Hill, Beloit, Wisconsin" 7-24-1929-b.webp — source, back
• Postcard "Basford Beach Looking toward Big Hill, Beloit, Wisconsin" 7-24-1929.webp — source, front
• postcard-7860_Basford_Beach_-_Big_Hill_at_left_-_postcard.rev.1619470596.jpg — source, front
• postcard-1929-basford-beach-looking-toward-big-hill-back.jpg — vault image, back
• postcard-1929-basford-beach-looking-toward-big-hill-front (postcard-1929-basford-beach-looking-toward-big-hill-front.jpg) — vault image, front
• postcard-basford-beach-looking-toward-big-hill-kropp-38.jpg — vault image, front

Scans: 1929-09-03 - Basford Beach Looking Toward Big Hill, Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and 1929-09-03 - Basford Beach Looking Toward Big Hill, Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 89c6ce7829e8…, 265da71ff863…). Media: front — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 5, 1094, 702]; back — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 0, 1097, 700]