Miss Bessie Criswell was celebrating a birthday.

She received a postcard greeting from her friend, Sarah.

Bessie lived in Emlenton, a borough in northwest Pennsylvania.  The town grew up around a crossing of the Allegheny River.

In 1914, the borough was twice as large as it is today.

Sarah lived in DuBois, a city in north-central Pennsylvania, about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.  Founded as a lumber town, the area later became a center of mining activity.

(The family of the lumber baron who founded the town (members of a French Huguenot family) donated the baron’s mansion to establish the State Normal School in the city.)

The face of the postcard bears an hand-colored photograph of a girl and a basket of flowers.

The girl is wearing a dress with elaborate stitchery.

Printed in Germany, this is an example of a postcard greeting that would be soon become extinct with the outbreak of the Great War.

On the reverse, Sarah expresses her wish that Bessie may have “many more birthdays”.

The two correspondents had birthdays in close proximity, as Sarah mentions her own approaching milestone.

On this day in May, Sarah is going to a circus and she wishes Bessie could join her. 

(Emlenton is more than 50 miles west of DuBois.)

One hopes that Bessie was pleased by the birthday greeting, that Sarah completed her work and saw the circus, and that the two remained friends for many years.