In my efforts to get a post up tonight, I reached into one of my boxes of postcards and pulled out the first card my fingers touched.
So here it is. The front features an image of the Connecticut State Capitol (an Eastlake Movement structure built in the 1870s). It is dated October 3, 1903, and signed by "Mother."1 The card is No. 1753 and was published by National Art Views Company of New York City.2
The back of the postcard has Hartford and Philadelphia postmarks and a green, one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamp. It is addressed to Master Bert Westover at 817 North 8th Street in Philadelphia.
Footnotes
1. October 3, 1903, was the date of Game 3 of the first modern World Series. It was a best-of-nine series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Americans. The Pirates won Game 3, 4-2, in front of 18,801 fans at Boston's Huntington Avenue Grounds. It took one hour and fifty minutes to play. Boston eventually won the series.
2. According to the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City, the National Art Views Company was purchased and absorbed by the The Rotograph Company in 1904. There is an entire blog dedicated to Rotograph, which was in business from 1904 to 1911. The blog is called The Rotograph Project. Though there are only 45 posts, most of them are quite detailed and packed with images. I found the blog via a 2012 post titled "Cryptorotographs."
While I have only ever seen the Pennsylvania State Capitol building and perhaps the Maryland State Capitol Building as a little boy, state capitol buildings are beautiful monuments to man's creative and artistic talents and superb craftsmanship. The stately buildings are indeed awesome and will never ever be able to be built again because there is no way we could afford it at today's prices for those materials - gold leaf, precious marble, beautiful paintings, stained glass, frescoes, glass chandeliers, etc. In addition many of the oieces of artwork and statuary and furniture could never be found. As I understand it most state capitol buildings cannot be insured because they are irreplaceable. What is really sad is that a very low percentage of our population have never visited their state capitol building. I took fourth classes to the state capitol in Harrisburg for 40 years and each time I go I see and experience something new and more beautiful than before. If you have never visited our Pennsylvania State Capitol Building, you owe it to yourself to go and experience this monument of superb beauty which has been called the "Most Beautiful State Capitol Building in the Nation". The public tours are free.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry for the typographical errors. The previous post should read, "Many pieces of of artwork instead of oieces of artwork. Also the one sentence should read "What is really sad is that a very low percentage of our population have EVER visited their state capitol building." instead of "What is really sad is that a very low percentage of our population have NEVER visited their state capitol building. Sorry, I will have to be more careful in editing my responses.
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