Miss Pearl Hendershot lived in Fort Atkinson, a city on the Rock River of Jefferson County in southeast Wisconsin.
The city takes its name from a military post that was erected beside the river during the Black Hawk War of 1832.
Later, many settlers from New York State and New England brought the patterns of Yankee communities to the area.
Today, the area continues to support important dairy businesses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Atkinson,_Wisconsin
In October of 1908, Pearl received a postcard from an unnamed friend or relative.
The postcard was mailed from Benton, a village within the Town of Benton in Lafayette County of southwest Wisconsin.
Benton is almost 100 miles southwest of Fort Atkinson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benton,_Wisconsin
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The face of the postcard contains an original painting of empty sailing vessels moored for the night.
The pastel-colored sky is reflected on the still water and casts pink shadows on the distant mountains.
The calm scene is surrounded by a wide wooden fame.
A nameplate identifies the work a “Sunset by Howard”.
The postcard was printed in the United States.
We have seen another postcard image of a similar style: “Marine Scene by Unker”
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On the reverse, the writer begins, “Hello Pearl”.
It seems that Pearl is still a schoolgirl, as the sender asks, “How are you enjoying your school.”
The message ends with a request, “write to me sometime”.
The friend, “Would be glad to hear from you.”
Pearl seems to have enjoyed the postcard art as the greeting was preserved in good condition throughout her life.
One hopes that she succeeded in school, that she wrote to her friend, and that the postcard correspondence continued for many years.
