Emily sent this head-scratcher from Massachusetts a few weeks ago; I’ve been puzzling over it in between the 50+ hour weeks I’ve been working for the past month. It’s handmade and, while I enjoyed receiving it and find it interesting, I can’t help but think that she mixed up my card with the one she was going to send to the PostSecret guy. I have never received a card like this; it is unique in my collection. It makes me wish I had the time and talent to create handmade cards that others would like. Another wish: that I could decode Emily’s message.

Ham radio operator Phil Shea may have just gotten lucky to get such a cool callsign, but more than likely it’s a vanity callsign he specifically requested. And why not? He did live in Massachusetts, after all, less than an hour from Salem. Also, take note of the fact that Phil was l33t before the rest of us.

This card acknowledges transmissions from Phil picked up by our friend Bill Seaback on February 13, 1960. It looks like Phil saved some money on his QSL cards by having only one side printed. Regardless, it makes for a great Halloween post.

This will be the last of Bill’s QSL cards to be posted. I’ve been in touch will Bill’s daughter, Jennifer, who tells me that Bill was 15 years old in 1960; as I suspected, he passed away a few years ago. I’ve sent off the 30-odd remaining cards to Jennifer. I’m sure that these cards will mean as much to her as my great-grandfather’s postcards mean to me.

This is a leather postcard, one of four that I picked up while vacationing in New England.  All four are addressed to Miss Grace Hoare of Lowell, Massachusetts, who received them around 1907.  My notes don’t say what I paid for them — they might have cost next to nothing, or I might have been persuaded to part with a few dollars each for them, just for the novelty’s sake.

“‘The Spirit of ’76,’ also known as ‘Yankee Doodle,’ described as the most inspiring patriotic picture in America, hangs in the Town Fathers’ meeting room in Abbot Hall (in Marblehead, Massachusetts). Painted by A.M. Willard, it was presented to the Town in 1880 by General John Devereux, whose son was the model for the drummer boy.” This is a “Lusterchrome” card by Tichnor Bros., Boston 15, Mass.

The card notes that reproduction is prohibited without the express permission of the Board of Selectmen in Marblehead. So assiduously had they guarded this image over the years that the August 12, 1935 issue of Time magazine made special mention of a rare occasion on which they allowed the image to be reproduced.

Given the amount of effort that the artist put into the the building and the trees, you’d think that the clouds would be a little more detailed.  This is a leather postcard, one of four that I picked up in a shop while vacationing in New England.  All were sent to Miss Grace Hoare of Lowell, MA.  While the postmark on this card shows no year, it was probably manufactured and mailed in 1907 — an opinion I base on the other cards like this.

This is one of four leather postcards that I picked up on a vacation to New England.  Like the others, this one is addressed to Miss Grace Hoare of Lowell, Massachusetts.  Of the four, this one is the most rigid, especially around the edges — though by comparison with postcards made from the card stock of today, it is not rigid at all.  It was probably manufactured and mailed in 1907.

This card is the only one of the four that bears a mark from the manufacturer; it was made by the Hy-Sil Manufacturing Company of Boston, which was founded in 1903 by Eli Hyman and Morris Silverman and is still in business today.

At a glance, I would have thought that this was a photochrome postcard from the 1970s; it’s standard-sized (3½” x 5½”), and the photo shows a lot of older cars in the parking lot.  But this Butterfly Palace Butterfly Place in Westford, Massachusetts has only been around since September of 1990:

“It is presently (sic) the only permanent seasonal indoor facility of its kind. Open from mid-April to mid-October. It features North American butterflies in its 3100 sq. ft. flight area. At any given time, the atrium contains up to 400 butterflies representing as many as 30 or more species. The full life cycle of butterflies and many colorful moths can be observed close-up.”

Thanks to Fred for putting so much thought into his choice of postcards to send to me; I like it very much.

Oh, I’ll bet this card is hilarious with a Boston accent. This modern Continental-sized chrome extols the virtues of Legal Sea Foods (three locations in the Greater Boston area, at least at the time this was manufactured), winner of the Travel Holiday Magazine Award for “Largest and Freshest Seafood in the Country.”

This “postcard” is in fact made of wood, and is an eighth of an inch thick. Looked at from the side, it appears to have a core of particle board with a slice of veneer on each side. Everything appears to be printed directly onto the wood and has no texture, with the exception of “Rockport, Mass” which was burned in. I suspect that there are several identical “cards” with different towns burned into them.

This card was manufactured by Vandercraft of Prineville, Oregon. I purchased it on a trip up the East Coast in 1997.

Linen postcard in pristine condition. This is “A ‘Colourpicture’ Publication, Cambridge, Mass.”, and was (originally) sold by Frank M. Shurtleff of Gloucester, probably a shopkeeper or distributor. The stampbox specifies postage of one cent.

Here is what’s known as a piece of “ephemera” — an envelope I found being used as a bookmark, in a book that had apparently not been opened in quite a while. I love the fact that it’s simply addressed to the business name and the city, and it got where it needed to go. Robert B. Ely’s return address is preprinted, centered on the flap of the envelope on the back.

Alas, the Surf Building and Loan Association no longer seems to exist. However, 51 Piermont Street in Wollaston, Quincy, Massachusetts, looks like a nice place. Was Mr. Ely paying off this house, or another property? Did he build the house with the loan money? Does the fact that this business envelope was being used as a bookmark mean that employees found ways to goof off at work before Al Gore invented the Internet? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are outside the scope of this blog. However, if you know the answer, feel free to share it with us.