East Grand Ave., Beloit, Wis. (B)

Undated. to Mrs John Palmquist[?], Rockford.

The picture

A streetcar turns on curving tracks in the foreground of a wide unpaved intersection; at left a row of ornate commercial blocks with arched upper windows and a small tower, at right a plain two-story brick corner building with red-and-white striped awnings and a large 'EMERSON'S DRUG STORE' sign; telegraph poles with many crossarms in the middle; pedestrians and a horse-drawn rig at right.

• Printed caption: EAST GRAND AVE., BELOIT, WIS.
• Publisher: E. C. KROPP CO. PUB. MILWAUKEE, NO. 4395
• Number: 4395
• Printing: colored halftone · color
• Lettering in the picture: EMERSON'S DRUG STORE (sign, right); [illegible] (number on the streetcar dash)
• Condition: corner wear; the scan shows horizontal color banding across the picture (scan or print artifact)

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: Post Card · This Space for Address only.
• Stamp box: P[…] (printed corner box, mostly under the stamp)
• Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin
• Postmark 1: A[…] / A[…] (fragment of a circular date stamp at the top edge, cut off by the edge of the card or scan)
• Postmark 2: (parallel bars) (killer of parallel bars striking the stamp at the lower right)
• Condition: the whole back is toned dark brown; a crease across the top left; pale scuffed patches at the upper right and across the bottom of the address; a dark curved stroke across 'Wisconsin' in the address (perhaps part of a postmark ring or an ink mark)

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; very faint pencil on dark brown-toned card):

Beloit Wis
Mar[?] 2[?] '11[?]
My dear friend:-
Oscar and I are
down[?] here for a
couple days [illegible]
[illegible 2 words]
having a [illegible]
time[?]. The boys are
alone[?] [illegible] the
first[?] time but
they [illegible]
[illegible 3 words]
[illegible 4 words]
[illegible 2 words] Emma[?],

Address:

Mrs John Palmquist[?]
130 Wisconsin[?] Ave.
Rockford Ill.

A later hand (large pencil figure, probably a dealer's price, above 'Post Card', center top): 15

Reading version

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

Beloit, Wis., Mar[?] 2[?] '11[?]. My dear friend: Oscar and I are down[?] here for a couple days [illegible] [illegible 2 words] having a [illegible] time[?]. The boys are alone[?] [illegible] the first[?] time but they [illegible] [illegible 3 words] [illegible 4 words] [illegible 2 words] Emma[?],

Who

• Mrs John Palmquist[?] — recipient, 130 Wisconsin[?] Ave., Rockford, Ill.
• Oscar — mentioned in the message, travelling with the writer
• Emma[?] — possibly the sender (last word of the message)

When

How	Date	Basis
written	Mar[?] 2[?] '11[?]	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
address	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
message	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message

Uncertain readings:

• message, date line: Mar[?] 2[?] '11[?] (or Mar 21 '11, May 2 '11, Mar 2 '14) — very faint pencil on dark card; the year could be read as '11 but is not certain
• message, line 5: down[?] (or over, in) — faint
• message, lines 6 to 15: largely illegible — faint pencil on dark brown-toned card at the scan's resolution; a higher-resolution scan with raking light would help
• message, last line: Emma[?], (or Emma, Erma, Jenna) — the word ends the message with a comma; it may be a signature or part of a closing phrase
• address, line 1, surname: Palmquist[?] (or Palmgren, Palmquin) — the end of the word is faint
• address, line 2: Wisconsin[?] Ave. (or Winnebago Ave., Webster Ave.) — the middle of the word is under a dark curved stroke

Reader's note: The postmark is cut off at the top edge, so the card's postal date and town cannot be read. The message is dated (faintly) at Beloit, and the writer says 'Oscar and I' are here for a couple of days. The message needs a better scan to be read in full.

Scans: East Grand Ave., Beloit, Wis. - B - 01.png and East Grand Ave., Beloit, Wis. - B - 02.png (sha256 ce0f4c798422…, 01f3b0387d31…). Media: front — the scan, byte for byte; back — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 0, 1100, 701]