Attendant Spittoons
On September 6 of 1917, Alice sent a postcard showing the lobby of Chicago's Grand Pacific Hotel to Mr. Henry Heinks in Eden, Idaho. This is what she wrote, in blobby once-black ink that has faded to sepia in the 96 years since the nib of a pen siphoned it from an inkwell: Dear friend, I rec’d your card a long time ago and was glad to hear that you got home all O.K. I have been in Chicago for almost two weeks some place alright. from Alice Next to the one cent stamp, and above the addressee, the words “Post” & “Card” are printed in a green slant of open face type. The top curve of the capitalized “C” is slashed by a weedy dingbat, which is somewhere between older, more florid Victorian swashes and the sleek efficient accents influenced by post-WWI assembly lines. The front of the card is glossy, and when held sideways to the light, a fine craquelure enmeshes the central photographed image of eight tufted black leather club chairs arranged around the perim...