I saw this on eBay about six years ago and couldn’t resist sending the owner a couple of bucks.  This is an envelope sent from the Overstreet Hardware Company of Lexington, Kentucky on 12 May 1942 to the Karr Range Company of Belleville, Illinois, and is proof that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

I’m not able to find any mention anywhere of the Overstreet company, but the Karr Range Company made range ovens for years.  An example is pictured at right, and one that’s in good shape will fetch about $200-$400 today.  One wonders if the Overstreets were selling them bolts or something.  To my knowledge, this company is in no way related to my family, but I do have some roots in that part of the country.

Also of interest is the fact that this is a postal envelope (with the 3 cents postage embossed onto the envelope) along with a return address made by a printing press.  Did the postal service offer items like this back then?  Or was the return address printed after the fact by a third party?

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.