(This postcard is of the latest date that I have posted – I seek to avoid using postcards related to persons who are still living.)
Mrs. J. Brown lived in Wilmington, the largest city and hub of finance, commerce, and industry in the State of Delaware.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington,_Delaware
In September of 1950, Mrs. Brown received a postcard announcement of the upcoming meeting of the Wilmington Deltiology Club.
The term “Deltiology”, from the Greek word for small witting tablet, was invented in the 1940s to meet the pressing need for a word to describe the activity of postcard collecting.
For several decades thereafter, there were Deltiology Clubs and Deltiology Societies – but the term was never adopted universally and most associations of postcard collectors now use “postcard club”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deltiology
The invitation to Mrs. Brown was sent by E. Walter, the Secretary of the Club.
The Secretary mailed the postcard from Crum Lynne, an unincorporated community in Ridley Township of Delaware County in southeast Pennsylvania.
Once a stop on the Philadelphia-Baltimore line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Crum Lynne in now on a SEPTA rail line and an interchange on Interstate 95 between Philadelphia and Wilmington.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crum_Lynne,_Pennsylvania
The face of the postcard is an illustration of the “Chamberlin Hotel and Wharf” in “Old Point Comfort, Virginia.
The postcard was published by The Chessler Company of Baltimore.
Old Point Comfort is a point of land at the extreme tip of the Virginia peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads.
For more than 400 years, Point Comfort served as a navigational landmark and a military stronghold (Fort Monroe is now a National Monument there.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Point_Comfort
The blurb on the reverse of the postcard brags about the rare “social strata” of the Chamberlin Hotel”.
Today, the Chamberlin Hotel has been repurposed as a retirement community.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chamberlin
E. Walter may have used a postcard from his own collection for the club invitation – the postcard was printed about 20 years before the club meeting.
The message on the reverse is very straightforward:
“The next meeting of the Wilmington Deltiology Club will be held on Thursday, September 21, 8 p.m. promptly at 1039 West 7th Street. “
(This address relates to a charming townhouse, on the corner of 7th street, built in 1900.)
https://www.redfin.com/DE/Wilmington/1039-W-7th-St-19805/home/45099452
One hopes that the meeting occurred as planned and that the members were pleased by the business that ensued.
Alas, the Wilmington Deltiology Club no longer exists by that name.
