Editor’s note: I hesitate to present this article for three reasons: (1) the research is incomplete, (2) new sources of information are not available, and (3) I am losing interest, but perhaps there is a Postcard History reader who can close the gaps. Consequently, it is now or never!
Certainly, each of you has had similar experiences; a fact that may generate interest.
At least 30 years ago, I purchased the card above. It advertises a laundry service in Connecticut, but the image is from Algiers. Then suddenly, in early summer, eight cards arrived at Postcard History. Each one is postmarked 1913 and each one was sent to the home at 88 Ashley Street, in the Asylum section of Hartford, Connecticut. That house, at the corner of Ashley Street and Huntington Street, faces south and is just one block east of Sigourney Square Park. At the time it was the home of Henry Curtis Sheffield and his wife Martha.
It is easy to assume facts about a card based on the postmark, handwriting, message, publisher’s imprint, and the image, but my first find had only an address and a postmark.
There are, however, two significant clues, first there is a calendar page in the upper-left corner and an overprinted corporate signature at the bottom left edge – Sanitary Laundry.
Was it safe to assume that the card is one of twelve? Yes, much later when I found the January card there was a plea that the recipient “Preserve this card – there are eleven more….”
The usual information sources on the Internet were no help except for the collectables for sale sites, i.e., <eBay.com>, <Delcamp.com>, and <hippostcard.com>. The <newspapers.com> site managed to find an obituary of Mr. Sheffield, but the only previously unknown facts were that he died at age 82 and he is buried in Glastonbury Church Cemetery.
The Federal Census was most helpful.
Henry was born in March 1867, the third of the three sons of Sanford and Julia Sheffield of Glastonbury, Connecticut. By the time of the Twelfth Federal Census, June 1, 1900, Henry had married Martha Elizabeth Brown in 1889 and they had a daughter, Helen.
Henry had done well for himself and his family. Starting his career as a financial agent and bookkeeper – today we call “agents” advisors and “bookkeepers” Certified Public Accountants. By 1910 (this time from the 13th Federal Censes) he had purchased a successful Hartford hotel and was finding time to participate in local fraternal brotherhoods and public service organizations. But business came first.
Just one mile from Ashley Street, near the corner of Church and Main Strees, across from the Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, at 101-105 Church Street was the Sanitary Laundry Company. The laundry company is long-gone and, on that property, today is an astonishingly beautiful office building known only as “20 Church Street,” and the Hartford Stage Theatre.
Is it safe to assume these cards were mailed to Mr. Sheffield because he used the company’s services to launder the sheets (and more) from his hotel?
***
Then one day in Chester, Virginia, (at the Old Dominion Postcard Club show) there was the “Russia” card, but it was very different. It had a different image, a different calendar (1914), and it was sent to an address in Cortland, New York.
In the three years since that postcard show in Virginia, I have discovered that these postcards were mailed to laundry customers in at least three years (1912, 1913, and 1914) by at least ten dry cleaners and laundry businesses. If you decide to search for these cards, you will find them from …
The French Dry Clean Co. of Richmond, Indiana
The Silver Star Laundry Co. of Denver, Colorado
The Winchester Laundry of Winchester, Massachusetts
Jet White Laundry of St. Joseph, Missouri
Universal Steam Laundry of Portland, Maine
The Manheim Laundry of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Kelso Laundry of Rochester, New York
Kimball’s Ideal Laundry of Waterloo, Iowa
Cortland Steam Laundry of Cortland, New York
Ream’s Laundry & Dry Cleaners of Peru, Indiana,
And maybe others.
I hope you now understand my reluctance to present the article. Sadly the checklist is incomplete. I’m still searching for a February and June card from Sanitary Laundry. And, I am fully aware that if I find a February card it may have a different image and it won’t be from Connecticut.
Checklist: 1913 Set from The Sanitary Laundry Co., Hartford, Connecticut
January Africa Message mentions children at the edge of a pond.
February unknown
March Greece
April Algiers When water is available
May Spain blue Monday
June unknown
July Holland 200 degree drying room
August France Starch
September Italy Ironing and finishing
October Switzerland About Flat Works, i.e., sheets, pillowcases, etc.
November Russia date August 1914 from Indiana
December Panama solicit your continued patronage
***
If you have any knowledge of these cards, please share what you know in the “Comments” below or email me at editor@postcardhistory.net
Examples:
