Rock River, Yost Park in Distance, Beloit, Wis.

Mailed 27 May 1910 from Sparta. to Mr. Harry Scott, St. Clairsville.

The picture

A wide, calm stretch of the Rock River seen from a raised railroad track on the near bank: a launch towing a small flat boat in mid-river with its wake trailing right, a point with a clump of tall trees at left, a small wooded island at right, low meadows and a few farm buildings on the far side, under an orange-and-blue sky. The railroad track in the foreground is cut off by the edge of the image.

• Printing: colored halftone · color
• Postmark ink on the picture: faint ink of a postmark and pencil marks in the sky at upper left
• Condition: heavy moiré banding from the scan; light soiling

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: POST CARD (with a triangular emblem lettered QUALITY over a monogram HCL[?]) · ADDRESS ONLY ON THIS SIDE. · BELOIT, WIS. The Rock River Valley is one of the most beautiful regions in the world. The water power for which the Rock River is famous, is the basis for extensive manufacturing interests at cities like Beloit and Janesville. These towns are closely linked together and connected with the outer world by the extensive transportation service of the Chicago & North Western Ry. · Beloit is the seat of Beloit college and a city of great natural beauty, built on rolling ground overlooking the beautiful river at a point where the Illinois-Wisconsin state line crosses the stream.
• Stamp: 1c, green, Washington
• Postmark: SPARTA / MAY 27 / 8-AM / 19 10 / WIS. (machine cancel with flag killer)
• Condition: toning; a tear at the right edge

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, under the printed text, in pencil):

hellow how[?]
[illegible] ths[?] my[?]
[illegible 3 words]
I got there all[?]
Hope[?] [illegible 2 words]
[illegible 2 words]
sparta Wis
route 6

Address:

Mr Harry scott
st Clairesvill
Ohio

Reading version

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

Hellow, how [?] … I got there all [?] … Hope [?] … Sparta, Wis., route 6.

Who

• Harry scott — recipient, St. Clairsville, Ohio

When

How	Date	Basis
filename	1910-05-27	the date in the scan's file name
postmark	1910-05-27	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
postmark	all agree	claude, gemini, gpt
address	crux (1 word still in question)	claude, gemini, gpt
message	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message	gemini, gpt

Uncertain readings:

• message, lines 1-6: hellow how … I got there all … Hope — faint pencil in an untrained hand; most words cannot be read on this image
• address, line 2: st Clairesvill — read as St. Clairsville, Ohio, the Belmont County seat; the writer's spelling is kept

Reader's note: Mailed at Sparta, Wis. (Monroe County), 27 May 1910, to St. Clairsville, Ohio. The writer gives a return address of 'Sparta Wis route 6' and seems to report arriving there ('I got there all [right?]'). Unsigned. Same view and printing as pc-056 (Leighton no. 28812). The image stops short of the caption.

Scans: 1910-05-27 - Rock River, Yost Park in Distance, Beloit, Wis. - 01.webp and 1910-05-27 - Rock River, Yost Park in Distance, Beloit, Wis. - 02.webp (sha256 18278e029f52…, 38ff600b0bbc…). Media: front — decoded from WEBP and saved as PNG (no pixel changed); back — decoded from WEBP and saved as PNG (no pixel changed)