Miss Ida Poor lived in Arlington, a town on the Mill Brook in Middlesex County of east-central Massachusetts.

Originally a part of Cambridge, Arlington became the home to seven mills and had an ice industry based on Spy Pond and other nearby lakes.

Only six miles northwest of Boston, Arlington was the site of a significant skirmish of the early American Revolution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington,_Massachusetts

In March of 1908, Ida received a postcard from Stella M. Grimes.

Stella mailed the postcard from the Arlington Station in Boston – suggesting that she lived within an easy commuting distance of Ida.

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The face of the postcard is a drawing of the cross revealed in triumph.

An angel bends before the radiant cross which gleams in golden light.

Tall lilies flank the Image.

The use of pale, pastel colors imparts an ethereal aura to the drawing.

Beside the scene of angelic awe, ornate letters in gold proclaim, “The Lord is risen”.

Although an individual artist is not identified, we read at the bottom of the face that the postcard was copyrighted in 1907 by the H. I. Robbins Company of Boston.

Because the Robbins Company had branches in Germany, I believe that the postcard was printed there.

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On the reverse, the space for a message is reduced to a smaller block perpendicular to the address.

This format shows the evolution toward a true “divided-back” postcard.

Stella inscribed her name, but no other message.

This omission might indicate that Stella was in regular contact with Ida.

One hopes that the correspondents experienced the joy and triumph of Easter and that they exchanged postcards for many years.

RESEARCH NOTE

On February 25, 1854, Ida May Poor was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts – which was then a part of Middlesex County.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlestown,_Boston

Ida was the daughter of Henry R. Poor (1819-1899) and Mary Jane Day (1813-1889).

Henry and Mary Jane had been married in Bradford, MA in 1842

The couple had six sons and three daughters between 1843 and 1857; the last three children were born after Mary Jane was 40 years old.

Three sons appear to have died at young ages.

By the time Ida received this postcard, another brother had died in 1903 (Ida was 54 years old).

Ida never married; she lived in Middlesex County until her death in Boston in 1918.

She was 64 years old at the time of her death.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/L4GB-5WW