Happy Birthday, Brother Walter

May 4. 1916

Dear Brother Walter here is a little girl for your Birthday and many more to come

love from Sister Susan

The Till family seems to have been very close and I have many birthday cards to Walter from his siblings.

Good for What Ails You - Part 2

Another metamorphic trade card (approx. 1880) for your amusement:

Oh, the poor man! But just flip back the bottom of the card and he's cured - and dancing!

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I also find it interesting that this card was printed by Donaldson Brothers in Five Points, New York. There is no longer a Five Points, New York. It was such a terrible crime-ridden slum in new York City that it was razed in 1885-95. Five Points had the highest murder rate in New York and in the world. It was swampy and full of crowded tenement housing, insects, and vermin. One tenement building with 1,000 residents was reputed to have an average of one murder a night for 15 years until it was torn down in 1852. The entire area was dominated by rival gangs, including the Bowery Boys. This was also the location of the infamous Tombs prison. Charles Dickens described the area in his 1842 work, American Notes.  Oh, I couldn't help myself; I've gone off on a tangent.  Anyway, I'm not sure why Donaldson Bros. decided to locate there (cheap labor?) but they were a major printer of postcards and trade cards.

Streetcar Sunday - Milwaukee, WI

Not much traffic other than the streetcars in this early photo of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Milwaukee had electric streetcars starting in 1890. They operated until 1958. Milwaukee also had interurbans that connected the city with Kenosha, East Troy/Burlington, Watertown, and Sheboygan. The interurban trains had all been replaced with buses by 1947.

This card dates from about 1907. If you're specifically interested in streetcars of Wisconsin, you should check out the Transport Co. Web Station website.