Featured Recent RPPC Postcard Find! Roderick and His Pets.

Thought that this postcard was fun! Roderic must have been spoiled rotten growing up in a fairly prosperous family to have such a varied assortment of pets. 1906 was such a long time ago. I wonder what it was like to grow up then. It was a new century with lots of optimism and the U.S. was rapidly becoming an industrial juggernaut but conflict and WWI was looming in the not so distant future.

 

Roderic, put away your toys and wash-up before supper!

 

Nice, Joe!

Dude photo-bombing in the background looks a bit sinister.

 

That's an RFD address, and if this was a Country kid a pony, goat and a dog don't look that weird.

 

they look well trained too.....

 

I looked up Agnes Sayer in the 1910 census records, looks like her husband George was a dog trainer, at the time.

I couldn't fine a Roderic in Champaign, Ohio, or a Fannie D(?) with a Roderic, but with the use of nicknames and how common it was for people to move around at this point...

 

Good to see you back @SeaGoat!

 

good to see u back...Joe !!

 

Just one thing, though. The postcard is addressed to Miss Agnes Sayre. I realize the spelling of the surname doesn't matter much, especially not in the census. But the "Miss" on the postcard does. Also, the location of the folks on the census page is in Meigs County, Ohio. Yet the postcard is addressed to the town of West Liberty, which is in Logan County, in a different part of the state from Meigs County. So it's great that you found something, but I don't think it's the same person.

 

I found out that a copy of this postcard image was published in a book (along with many other photographic images). The book is titled Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations As Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935. Authors were Arnold Arluke and Robert Bogdan. Book was published in 2010 by Syracuse University Press.

The image is on pg. 26 of the book, and a caption dates the card as c. 1908. It doesn't show the reverse side, but I imagine that it could have been postmarked then. Or was just a general guess. Obviously yours predates that. The copy in the book was from a card in a private collection, although they give the owner's name and residence city of Maitland, Florida.

The book is in Google Books but they do not reproduce any of the illustrations. I have access to subscriptions through the local university library. They include the book in their online holdings, so I was able to view it. The book is still available for sale online through several sites.

 

Thanks for the information! @Figtree3
I got a number of postcards at an estate sale in the Dayton, Ohio area. The former owner was apparently an postcard dealer from the area. I posted a bit about the sale in the Rants & Raves thread - it was quite an experience. Would have loved to have seen what those in front of me in line pulled out of the postcard lots and albums they had.

I got an album with a number of cards sent to Miss Agnes Sayre. I'll post some more of them to this thread if you folks would like. Lots of cards from West Liberty, Urbana, and other locales in central Ohio but also a number from Toronto of all places.

 

Good points.

It would be helpful to see other post cards as it fills out more of a repore