"Suzi and the Milestone" — helping to market Stel-Mar postcards

Here's a postcard oddity that might be among the last of its kind. (I can't find any others like it online.) This 1960s sample postcard was used to advertise the services of Stel-Mar, a long-gone company that was based in Mount Joy, Lancaster County.

According to the reverse side of the postcard, Stel-Mar offered "black & white postcards in quantities from 250 at low cost."

The Etchtone cards (using the halftone technique, as you can see in the closeup at right) could be made from photographs or negatives.

I wonder if Suzi, wearing her monogrammed blouse, was a Stel-Mar employee. Either way, it's an interesting photograph that they used for the marketing materials, what with Suzi grinning and holding a fold-out map while sitting on the grass near her bicycle and a mile marker.

Is that an authentic milestone? Do any Lancaster County residents out there recognize its shape and style?

(Full disclosure: When I first saw this postcard, I thought Suzi was sitting next to a gravestone. The flowers sprouting up right in front of it didn't help.)