This postcard was sent from Cincinnati to Frances Murphey of Kent, Ohio in 1940. Frances was then a student at Kent State and a staffer at the Kent Stater newspaper. She went on to become a reporter at the Akron Beacon-Journal for over 50 years. She was an avid postcard collector and had over 200,000 cards when she died. In a story published after her death, a friend said, “Instead of smoking and drinking in college, she bought postcards…she often would write postcards all night.”

In an alternate universe somewhere, Frances Murphey is a household name, and the cards she wrote and received are highly sought after. “No thanks, I already have that one of the Taft Museum,” someone might say. “Maybe so, but this one is a Murphey” would be the reply.