Monday, December 10, 2018

"Happy Christmas" postcard from Rotophot


This cheery old Christmas postcard was published by Rotophot, which can be identified by the tiny initials RPH inside a circle in the lower-left corner of the card. According to rosspostcards.com, "Rotophot began in Berlin, Germany, around the turn of the century (1900) and had other offices throughout Europe, including London and Budapest. They published many different postcard topics, such as women, children, lovers, holiday greetings, etc. Many of these postcards were tinted." The company later evolved into Ross Verlag, which published high quality — and highly collectable — postcards of movie stars and movie scenes from the 1920s through 1940s. Most of the company's records were lost or destroyed during World War II, so websites such as rosspostcards.com are a boon for postcard collectors.

This Christmas postcard was sent to Miss C. Kiesling at 2211 North 6th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I found a Leonard Charles Kiesling, who lived at 2211 North Sixth Street in Philadelphia and was a member of the Class of 1900 at the University of Pennsylvania. He died suddenly (accidental drowning) in 1904, at age 24. His parents were Henry Kiesling (1843-1887) and Anna Marie Kiesling (1948-1903), who were both dead before his tragic accident. No other siblings were listed in the records I found.

So it's still not clear who "Miss C. Kiesling" is.

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