Miss Helen Jeanne lived in Wappingers Falls, a village within the adjoining city of Poughkeepsie and the town of Wappinger in Duchess County of southeast New York State.
(This geography has led to decades of postal confusion.)
Wappingers Falls grew up around a mill (1742), later a print works, on cascades in the Wappinger Creek.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=Wappingers+Falls%2C+NY
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In September of 1909, Helen received a postcard from her friend, Agnes Robertson.
Agnes mailed the postcard from Lowell, then an industrial center in north-central Massachusetts.
Lowell was planned and developed as a textile manufacturing center around a series of falls on the Merrimack River.
The abundance of hydro power led to industrial diversification and to the building of canals.
Irish immigrants streamed into Lowell in the mid-19th century, and hundreds of young women from New England farms became “mill girls”.
By 1900, German Catholic and French Canadian immigrants filled ethnic neighborhoods in Lowell where 50% of the population was foreign-born.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell,_Massachusetts
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The face of the postcard is a photograph of the natural falls on the Merrimack River – labeled “Pawtucket Falls” for the indigenous people who one lived in the area.
Some industrial buildings can be seen in the background.
Today, a museum complex fills the red-brick structures that once housed a great mill in the center of Lowell.
(It is worth a visit).
On the reverse, Agnes writes, “this reminds me of the Falls at home.”
The short message does not reveal much about the reasons why Agnes might be in Lowell, not about the relationship between Helen and Agnes.
We know that Helen preserved the postcard in good condition throughout her life.
(I made minor digital repairs to the edges of the postcard -which had been abraded over time.)
One hopes that Agnes returned safely to her home, and that she and Helen maintained a friendly correspondence for many years.
