Grand Avenue Looking West, Beloit, Wis.

Mailed 8 Feb. 1934 from Beloit. From Your Ma & Pa to Miss Viola Marquardt[?], Chicago.

The picture

A high view down a long business street with streetcar tracks: a streetcar with a yellow-and-black chevron front and two square-topped automobiles in the foreground; three-storey brick blocks with awnings and a towered Victorian building at left; a U.S. flag on a tall pole at right; more cars and pedestrians down the street to a wooded horizon.

• Printed caption: Grand Avenue looking West, Beloit, Wis.—32
• Number: 32
• Printing: white border · color
• Postmark ink on the picture: faint gray dashes of a machine cancel killer across the sky, left and centre (offset from another card)
• Condition: light corner wear; a small dark spot at the bottom edge, left

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: 4712-N · POST CARD
• Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin
• Postmark: BELOIT WIS. / FEB 8 / 4 30 PM / 1934 (machine cancel with wavy-line killer)
• Condition: light soiling; slight edge wear

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, lines running from top to bottom, first line nearest the divider, written sideways: written with the card turned, reading downward; turn the card 90 degrees counter-clockwise to read):

Killing time in
Beloit can see the
whole town in
10 min.
Your Ma & Pa

Address:

Miss Viola Marquardt[?]
4825 Fletcher St.
Chicago
Ill

Reading version

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

Killing time in Beloit; can see the whole town in 10 min. Your Ma and Pa

Who

• Miss Viola Marquardt[?] — recipient, 4825 Fletcher St., Chicago, Ill.
• Ma & Pa — sender (the recipient's parents)

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1934-02-08	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1934-02-08	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	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message	claude, gemini, gpt

Uncertain readings:

• address, line 1: Marquardt (or Marquard) — the last letter runs to the card's right edge

Reader's note: Parents passing through Beloit write to their daughter in Chicago; the message is a remark on the town's small size.

Scans: 1934-02-08 - Grand Avenue Looking West, Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and 1934-02-08 - Grand Avenue Looking West, Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 9639824f1854…, 7d47eb05f5c9…). Media: front — the scan, byte for byte; back — the scan, byte for byte