We met young Edmund Harnish in an earlier postcard story – he had received a postcard greeting of original art featuring boys playing marbles.

That postcard had been mailed from Millstadt, Illinois while Edmund was in St. Louis.

In July of 1907, Edmund was in Ludington, Michigan.

Ludington is a city at the mouth of the Pere Marquette River on Lake Michigan.  At the turn of the 20th century, Ludington was the center of an enormous lumber industry.

Railroads connected the city to markets throughout the US, and a fleet of steamers carried freight and passengers across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin.

This postcard is also illustrated with original artwork.

Copyrighted in 1906, by the James Lee Company, the illustration shows a young man and his dog smoking pipes.

The title, “Hitting the Pipe”, appears at the bottom of the picture.

Pictures of animals engaged in human activity reappear throughout the history of postcard art.

Dogs playing poker, cats shopping or teaching school, dogs driving automobiles – many other examples can be found.

In this illustration, the dog seems to be emulating the behavior of the boy.

(Here, the dog is not reading a newspaper, although that accomplishment can be found in other postcard illustrations.

On the face, Aunt Kate (Tanta Katie) writes, “Hello, Edmund”.

Aunt Kate is now in St. Louis, and she mailed the postcard that place on July 9.  A receiving postmark in Ludington dated July 10.

We don’t have an explanation for Edmund’s change of address.

We hope that he was enjoying the many recreational opportunities of Ludington (camping, hiking, fishing) in the summer of 1907.