I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Tag: picture post cards from the early 1900s

  • Post Cards From The Heart – It’s Been Quite A Pleasure Trip To Me


    Bessie loved the sights she’d seen on her honeymoon trip and wrote her longest comments on a post card of Thomas Circle dated Sunday, September 29, 1907.   Was she writing to one of her sisters or someone in Luke’s family or maybe just a note to remind herself of the awesome experience she’d had on her stay or maybe even to her dear friend Florence?   You be the judge.

    We are taking in the sights of the city. It has been quite a pleasure trip to me. Seems like our trip to Y.C.F. July 4th., 1904.   Yours, B.B. M.       Sunday, Sep 29, 1907 

    Of course, Bessie wanted to visit the Post Office and make sure she had a post card from the Home of All Post Cards!   The building didn’t disappoint her and Luke was entertained by her enthusiasm for a site he considered to be of lesser importance in the overall scheme of D. C.

    They both must have enjoyed the fountains on their Sunday walk through the Capitol.   Bessie had two interesting pictures of fountains she saw on this day in September of 1907.

    Batholdi Fountain

    Sept 29, 1907  We saw this fountain but it was not frozen like this.

    The Neptune Fountain at The Congressional Library made an impression on the couple as they began their tour of the Library.    No tour guides today as they decided to wing it on their own and Bessie concluded this library was “The finest in America…” 

    Reading Room, Congressional Library

    Sunday, Sept 29 – 1907   Luke and Bessie

    In the midst of the post cards Bessie kept from her trip, I didn’t find a single one of the hotel where they stayed, but I think it must have been near F. Street N. W. because her final post card from the weekend was of that street.

    The scene shifts to Arlington, Virginia tomorrow as the honeymooners head south to Lee’s mansion and then further south to Washington’s Mount Vernon, but for this last day in Washington we’ll watch them holding hands as they leisurely stroll down F. Street in the midst of the trolleys and tourists.   Their D. C. days have passed quickly, but Bessie has the post cards that will keep her “pleasure trip” in safekeeping.

  • Post Cards From The Heart – Pennsylvania Avenue Washington’s Favorite


    Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C.

    Washington’s Favorite, Sept. 28 – 29  1907

                    B. and L.

    Horse-drawn carriages and trolley cars mingled with the newfangled motor cars that made Pennsylvania Avenue a noisy busy scene for our honeymooners Bessie and Luke as they toured Washington, D. C. over the weekend.  Bessie called the street Washington’s Favorite to indicate the importance she felt it had for the city in 1907 and, indeed, it remains the most famous avenue in the city a century later.

    Saturday morning was cool and crisp as the couple continued their adventures with a visit to The Smithsonian Institute where they were immersed in the museum of American history and its most recent significant addition, the flag known as The Star-Spangled Banner.  The flag was loaned to the Smithsonian in 1907 by a Maryland family that had owned it since it flew proudly at the Baltimore garrison which successfully resisted the British naval bombardment in the War of 1812.  An American lawyer named Francis Scott Key had watched the cannons fire during the night from a boat a short distance away and when he saw the ragged American flag raised as the light of dawn bathed the scene,  he wrote the words to what would be recognized as our national anthem by President Herbert Hoover in 1931.  When Luke and Bessie saw it in the Institute almost a hundered after the War of 1812, they were moved by the careful preservation of the tattered faded stars and stripes.  What a country!

    Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C. 

    Sat Sept 28, 1907

    No time to linger here, though, as they needed to grab a quick lunch before the afternoon’s excitement of a  tour of The Capitol…food required for stamina.

    The Capitol, Front View                            Washington, D. C. 

    Prettiest View, Sep 28  –   1907

    House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

    Sat Sept. 28th from 12:30 – 4:30

    Spent in Capitol

    Capitol, West.  Washington, D. C. 

    Capitol has 437 rooms in all. We spent 4 hrs here on p.m. Sep 28. Sat. 1907- A guide explained all to us.

           L and Bess

     Although the tour of The Capitol ended at 4:30, Luke and Bessie decided to save the rest of their D. C. sightseeing for Sunday.  The Smithsonian and The Capitol in one day had been overwhelming – an overload of facts and hard on the feet in pre-tennis shoe days.  Luke’s leather boots and Bessie’s honeymoon heels weren’t designed for comfortable wear and their adrenalin sagged in the late afternoon.  Get to the hotel and lie down, they decided…have a late dinner and a little night music.

    And that’s where we’ll leave them until tomorrow…

  • Post Cards From The Heart – Mr. Roosevelt Wasn’t Home


           Friday, Sep.27 – 1907   Viewed city from Monument

    Bessie and Luke left the Jamestown Exposition and continued their honeymoon with a visit to Washinton, D.C.   The Washington Monument was a must stop for them as they got their bearings inside the city and planned their stay.   Where to go first?   So much to see and do in the nation’s capitol and only three days for sightseeing!   The answer is the same as it is for many of us who travel to D.C. a century later, whether honeymooning or not.   The White House.   The iconic symbol of America’s pride in itself.

    Visited Fri Sep 27 – 1907.  The home of Teddie – he was not there.

    Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States and held that office from 1901 – 1909.   He was famous for his Rough Riders in the Spanish American War of 1898 but in 1906 received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiaite the Russo-Japanese Treaty.   War and Peace.  Two of the thorniest obsessions of American Presidents, and Teddy Roosevelt was no exception.   So in 1907 when our friends Luke and Bessie came to call,  he would have been the inhabitant of The White House as they stood in line to get their tickets for a tour of his home.  Alas, as she wrote jokingly on her post card, Teddy was not there. Bessie was so excited to go through the historical residence she bought a post card for each change of rooms and wrote the time for every half hour of the tour.

    Blue Room, White House, Washington, D. C.

    Ten a.m. Sept 27th  1907. L and B

    State Dining Room

    10:30 a.m. Sept 27th 1907

    Luke, Bessie

    Red Room

    Eleven a.m. Sept 27th 1907

    Executive Mansion, East Room

    Eleven thirty a.m., Sept 27th 1907

    East Room

    12 p.m. Sept 27th 1907

    The tour lasted two hours and was unforgettable for the young couple who were completely taken in by the guide’s descriptions and stories that came with the house.   If these walls could talk.

    The day was half over and Luke suggested they walk past a couple of other buildings he wanted to see on the way back to their hotel for a late lunch and afternoon delight.   It was a honeymoon, after all.

    State War and Navy Departments, Washington, D.C. 

    Fri Sept. 27, 1907

    Agricultural Building 

    Fri Sept 27 1907

    Naturally he wanted to see the military and agriculture  buildings on the very first day of their visit, and Bessie went along with him.  She purchased the post cards for their memory book which she faithfully kept as a reminder of each day’s adventures.   It was a world without digital cameras, a world without cameras unless you were a professional photographer, so the post cards were Bessie’s attempt to preserve their reminiscences.

    Let’s leave our Alabama couple to themselves on this Friday night in the Big City and wish them well until we meet them in the morning.