Track the T
JournalThis is an episode I want to highlight, because in a break from the usual eccentricities that I get through the post as a result of this experiment, this time I was sent a fragment of somebody's existence from over a century ago. It's a postcard that was written from "Walter" in Providence in Rhode Island to his friend Miss Lillian Jones in New Bedford in 1910, with no way to even conceive of the inventions of the next hundred years that would eventually lead to me reading out their correspondence on the Internet.  On closer examination, this is what I think it says: Arthur sen[t] a postal but you didn't answer it so he said. Actually, as he asks her to write back if she doesn't receive this card (not to mention his inaccuracy with the stamp) it means he didn't exactly have a strong grasp of communications even at the time, but this is an absolutely fascinating thing to suddenly receive - it's a snapshot of two people I'll never know, and can only guess at what their lives were like. The mention of 'deep waterway convention' could be about this proposal for a waterway between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico and suggests he worked at sea or ship construction or otherwise held some interest in it, but that's about all I have. 2014-10-20 18:25:00 Comment on this entry |
