This is a great card from Gilbert, Arizona ! My first thought when I saw the name was that Gilbert must be a small, possibly declining town of a few hundred people. Since it’s in Arizona, I imagined it might have been a mining community that began to fade after the mine closed. However, Gilbert is actually a suburb of Phoenix and has a population of nearly 300,000. The last time the town had only a few hundred residents was around the 1940 census. In the 1980s, Gilbert experienced a population boom. Between 1980 and 1990, the population grew from 5,717 to nearly 30,000. By 2000, it had reached almost 110,000—an increase of more than 400% in just a decade. There was no mine. William Gilbert , the town’s namesake, provided land to the Arizona Eastern Railway in 1902 to build a line between Phoenix and Florence. Settlers, including members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , moved into the area, including some who had left Mexico during unrest associated with Pancho Vil...

This is a reproduction of the Phoebe Snow advertising campaign for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (1900–1917). Phoebe Snow was a fictional character created by Earnest Elmo Calkins to promote the railroad. She was one of the first advertising characters based on a live model. Rail travel around 1900 was tough on passengers’ clothing. After a long trip on a train hauled by a bituminous coal-fired steam locomotive, travelers would often disembark covered in black soot. This was usually not the case when the locomotive burned anthracite, a cleaner-burning type of coal. The Lackawanna owned vast anthracite mines in Pennsylvania and, up until World War I , used anthracite in its passenger locomotives. As a result, the railroad could legitimately claim that passengers’ clothing would remain clean after a long journey. To promote this, Phoebe Snow was described as a “young New York socialite” and a frequent passenger on the Lackawanna. She was always depicted wearing a whit...

The New Yorker is famous for its cover art, and there is a postcard series dedicated to it. I’ve received many of these during my time with Postcrossing . I initially thought this one was from February, but it was actually published in late August 1997. I’m not sure whether the arrow is meant to be an erotic symbol—or if that’s just the kind of question the image is meant to leave you with.

Taichung was home to the Taichung Suns , a professional basketball team that played in the T1 League . The T1 League was one of several recent attempts to establish a stable professional men’s basketball league in Taiwan and operated from 2021 to 2024. The Suns were one of the original teams in the league. They played for two seasons before folding due to financial difficulties, finishing with losing records in both seasons. It’s a reminder of how quickly teams can come and go, even in major cities.

Kelsterbach is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. After World War II , many of the businesses in Kelsterbach were connected to Frankfurt Airport , which is located adjacent to the town. The sender notes that this card from Brussels was purchased during a weekend trip. The photo shows Parc du Cinquantenaire (Park of the Fiftieth Anniversary), a large urban park of about 30 hectares located in the eastern part of the European Quarter. The “fiftieth anniversary” refers to the Belgian Revolution , when the southern provinces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands seceded and established the Kingdom of Belgium. The centerpiece of the complex is the Cinquantenaire Arch , completed in 1905. The park is filled with gardens, ponds, and landscaped green spaces. Prior to 1930, it hosted numerous trade fairs, exhibitions, and festivals. Today, it serves primarily as a public leisure park. The northern part of the complex houses the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History ...

It’s interesting to think of such a long history—from Roman soldiers to modern-day celebrations—captured in a single postcard. This card comes from Altenstadt , located north of Frankfurt . It is an ancient settlement first mentioned in documents in 767. Archaeological excavations have shown that it was the site of a Roman garrison in the first half of the second century. This card celebrates 175 years of Hasenheide Gymnastics. The image is entitled “The Gymnastics Trip.”