More about the Publisher than the Train...

This is post card number 163 in Album Number Four of my train post card collection. I had skipped over it in the past thinking that it would be impossible to find any relevant details about either the front or the back. This morning, I discovered that I was wrong on both accounts. The

locomotive on the front of this post card is a 4-6-2 Pacific type of locomotive. Adam Burns of Amercian Rails https://www.american-rails.com/4-6-2.html tells us that "the Pacific Type became one of the most prolific and common steam locomotive designs during the first two decades of the 20th century and was by far the most widely used for passenger service. The 4-6-2's large drivers and high tractive efforts of the time made them ideal for such operations where they could regularly cruise at speeds over 70 mph." The purpose of this post card is to inform your loved ones that you have arrived at your destination "safe and sound". To do this, you simply fill in the hands on the clock with your arrival time; then, write the name of the city at which you have arrived on the line at the bottom and send it off to your family. In this case, it looks like someone arrived at Burlington, Iowa at 11:00 (can't really tell if it is morning or night) and sent the post card to Edith to let her know they are safe.

I cannot say if this train is actually at the Burlington, Iowa train station, but looking at images on line of the old station, I would say "not". Plus, this post card was published in New York City, so I doubt if Sanford Morris Salke, the person who owns the copyright, travelled to Burlington just to take this picture. I found this information about the publisher on line at https://www.laurelcottagegenealogy.com/?p=7904 Someone was doing a geneology search and provided the results at this location. The

double A in the bottom left-hand corner stands for the American Art Production Company. (I have post cards also from the American Art Post Card Company.) But, because the person was dong geneology research on Sanford Salke, we can know that this card was published by the former. The connection to Sanford was made by looking at the graphics around the word "Post Card" at the top of the card.

The design was likely fashioned around “S” for Salke:  You can see how the line continues into an S shape if you follow it under the “For Address Only” printing.