Postcards like this one always prompt me to reflect on how places change over decades. The building pictured is the Art Institute of Chicago, constructed in 1893 for the World’s Columbian Exhibition. The card was postmarked Bensenville, Illinois, which is located near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
This antique photograph postcard reflects an earlier era before the divided back postcard format. The message had to be squeezed on the front and the reverse reserved for the address only.
The place and time where Marie wrote and sent this card seems as distant from our present as our nearest celestial neighbors are from Earth itself. The Chicago of today would be unrecognizable to a 1910 resident, save for monumental landmarks such as this one.
“Come for me to night as I cannot walk home very well. Even if it is late. I must sew late any way. Marie”
To: Miss Eleanor Ehlers, Bensenville, Illinois
Postmark: Bensonville, Illinois – July 1, 1910
Image: Real photograph “Art Institute of Chicago”
Further Reading
Art Institute of Chicago: Mission & History
Lost Greetings 