Topics in this newsletter:
- Analyzing a 1907 postcard
- Letting the past speak to the present in old quotes and a cartoon
- Fall colors
Photo of a Woman Sporting a Top Hat and Pipe in 1907
The modern-day archival title of this old postcard is a gender-neutral "Person in top hat and pipe", although the person pictured appears to be a woman. That there is something gender-bending or gender-ambiguous about it is confirmed by the message on the back, presumably from the person photographed, who was travelling in Ohio.
Sept. 16, 1907
Dear Frances–
I just couldn't help it, and I knew you would want one, even tho you do have to hide it. I've had some good ones taken and will send you one as soon as they are finished. I've had a lovely time in Galion, but I leave in the morning for Mt. Vernon for a ten day visit then to Columbus and Zanesville for a few days. Dea had me read your letters. I'm glad you are feeling so fine. Yours lovingly Bessa
The condition of the postcard is immaculate because it was not sent in the clear as a postcard but instead placed in an envelope. Note how the handwritten text filled the entire back of the card, covering both the message half and the address half.
The reasons for Bessa's apparently subversive appearance are unclear, but three possibilities come to mind. She could have been a dress reformer, or maybe an entertainer, or simply someone for whom this manner of dress aligned most closely with her sense of self. Regardless, the look on her face and the tone of her text makes me think she she would have been a lovely person to know.
Source of images: Warren and Katherine Head postcard collection, The Newberry Digital Collections, NL12WVEL.
Past and Present
Here are quotes and a cartoon from the past that speak to our present.
“It’s a pity how easily people can be fooled.”
– Spencer Tracy’s character in “Keeper of the Flame” (1942)
“Congress was once the proud equal of the executive and judicial branches of our government. Now it stands drained of both power and respect, partly through abdication of its responsibilities and partly through the eager gathering of power by a burgeoning presidency. That phenomenon started with Franklin Roosevelt, and every President since has been unable to resist taking more decision-making responsibility on himself. The power to make war and to decide how our money is spent is no longer the unquestioned province of Congress …”
– “Fresh Blood for a Sick Congress,” Life, November 17, 1972, p. 42.
“Placing will above reason; the ideal over reality; appealing, unremittingly, to totem and taboo; elevating tribal fetishes; subjugating and destroying the common sense that grows out of human experience; of an oceanic boundlessness, Naziism … is the enemy of whatever is sunny, reasonable, pragmatic, common-sense, freedom-loving, life-affirming, form-seeking, and conscious of tradition.”
– Dorothy Thompson, Let the Record Speak (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1939), p. 3.
A cartoon urging Americans out of their complacency. You may snooze, is the message, but that doesn’t mean the fascist predator will leave you alone. The down payment for peace and quiet for the man here is his leg, assuming the hungry animal stops there.
Source: Ken Low for Ken, Nov. 3, 1938, via @Infrogmation@mastodon.online
Fall Colors
Snapshot of the foliage at sunset in our condo’s parking lot, Sept. 29, 2025.
Wild asters seen on my walk in North Conway today