Reward of Merit

I'm eternally charmed by the fact that over a hundred years ago children and adults alike were thrilled with decorative papers as gifts and awards in the late 1800 and early 1900s.  I guess it isn't that different than kids today getting stickers, but I still find it remarkable that pretty cards and cut-outs were treasured so much that children and adults kept them for their whole lives. Today you can still find them and often in great condition because of how much they were treasured.

An Award of Merit was one of the first pieces of ephemera I got. I found it at an old bookstore in Oakland in the late 80's and kept it displayed in my house for a long time.

Most Rewards of Merit are about 3.5 x 5, some are smaller like a business card and some are larger like a 5x7 size. This one below is large and a unique image for a Rewards of Merit card. It just says the name Ethel on the back.

I listed some of my collection of Reward of Merit cards in the Etsy shop today.

college days

I love these two postcards. I didn't get them together, but they are connected in my mind by content and the image of the Gibson girl style on the cover. They both look like college girls to me.

On this card above, the sender wrote the caption at the bottom. I love her message inside. This was written in June 1911. Sent from Adele in Cleaveland to a Mr Stanlee Bates in Garretsville Ohio.

Mercy I thought college fellows always kept things going. 
Don't talk about the weather. I am simply melted. 
Am off for the day on a picnic at the beach, to bad you aren't here to go along. 
Was real glad to hear from you.

Adele

This one above was also sent from Cleaveland Ohio in May of 1908 to a Mr Roy Davidson in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It says on the front:

Don't say anything but Frank is almost engaged. 

He has the diamond ring but has not given it to her yet. 

She is a lovely girl.

Dear Cousin, this will show you what 

I am doing nowadays. [undecipheral word, looks like "Diging"]

Your cousin, Mary D

Well, I just realized I posted this top postcard last year about the same time! Oh, my. I am running out of memory about these things. Oh, well, let's call it an encore. The bottom one is new.