Elva (age 13) and her sister, Cecile, (age 6) lived in Clinton, Iowa.

Clinton is a city on the Mississippi River in east central Iowa.  An early settlement there was once called, “New York”, and the city of Clinton is named for the great governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton.

Elva and Cecile were photographed together by an unknown photographer or studio in Clinton.

The postmark is indistinct- it appears to be stamped in Clinton in 1908.

Elva mailed the postcard photograph to Miss Olga Greene in Elk River, Minnesota.

Elk River is a city on the Mississippi River, a little more than 30 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

The postcard traveled almost 400 miles between the two cities on the Mississippi.

It appears as though Elva may have inscribed the reverse of the postcard with the names and ages of her sister and herself.

The address is written in the same handwriting, and the same hand wrote, “from Elva”.

We cannot know certainly the relationship of Elva to Miss Olga Greene.

Perhaps they once lived near each other, perhaps she is a cousin or other relative, perhaps she is a former schoolteacher or Sunday School leader.

In any event, one hopes that the young women enjoyed their youth in the early 20th century.