Weather
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Old Haunts and Burros Revisited
Katheryn McMahon Newton album, cards 35-39 On the 26th of February 1908, Fred sent Katheryn another card where the image was the inspiration for the communication. In this case, he even specified where he got the card: in a drug store in Portland, Oregon. Drug stores were a mainstay of the postcard market–and this particular card presented a local view, and was one of the United States images produced by the publisher, W.G. MacFarlane. Once again, Fred inscribed suggestive initials on the image, but in this case he did so not to invite Katheryn to imagine herself in Portland so much as to encourage her to think back to a…
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Billy in Berlin and Fred in Salt Lake and Seattle
Katheryn McMahon Newton Album, cards 32-34 First up, explicit reference as to how Fred expects Katheryn’s correspondence to reach him. Alas, this inspires in me an even greater desire to see her side. I recognize this desire is unlikely to be fulfilled. Her cards and letters most likely were destroyed at some point, whether deliberate or accidental; if they do survive, they may be scattered and even if they aren’t it would be a herculean task to try and locate them. “Dear Kit: Just arrived in the MormonTown – Train 1 hour + 50 m late. Passed through a fierce blizzard + snow storm after leaving Glenwood Springs. Am writing…
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Good Company and Weather; Bad Connections and Mail
Katheryn McMahon Newton Album, cards 25-26 This first card is not in particularly good condition. There’s a notable fold down the middle–almost a tear. Most of the cards from the album are in better shape, so my guess is that this card got bent when being mailed from Seattle to Chicago. When it happened doesn’t really matter–it’s unlikely to make a difference in any particular way except that the notable damage would likely reduce the price were it to be sold on it’s own. Then again, as with so many of these cards, their value is not so much in the images as their contents–particularly their collected contents. The image…
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My Little Pal Out Here (a Lonely Heart in Colorado Springs)
Katheryn McMahon Newton Album, cards 13-15 Fred wrote and sent this postcard only a day or so before he sent Katheryn the album to store her postcards in. Or did he in fact write this on the 12th of February and the inscription in the album on the 14th? Dates are funny things, after all, and subject to flux. The dates Fred inscribes might represent the days he’s actually sitting down or the days he wants associated with whatever he’s writing. These are usually the same thing, or close enough to make no difference–and barring evidence otherwise I’m willing to take his dates as good. Particularly because most of the…
