Undivided back, used, artist-signed postcard. Postmarked April 6, 1906 from Waltham, Massachusetts.

Price:  $12.00

This 1906 postcard shows off the 1891 popular watercolor and gouache work, The Music of the Dance, by Philadelphia-born artist Arthur Burdett Frost (1851 – 1928). Funny that we have three dates here:  The date on the original artwork, 1891, that we see in the left corner of the “tableau” next to the signature; the postcard date of 1906; and the date projected into the future by, likely the sender of the postcard, who wrote,  “Me in 1915”.  Was the sender joking that he would be reduced to….or projecting his hopeful success of being elevated to the life of a traveling musician (in nine years time)? Interesting question!

And though the postcard is not in good condition, it’s the only one we see at this time online, and definitely a nice part of artist, postcard, and African-American in art history, not to mention significant for anyone doing any Rumrill family research.

The card was mailed to:   “Mr. F. P. Rumrill, Hillsboro Br., N.H.”

The abbreviation Br. is probably for Borough. And there are some possibilities but we didn’t find any “no-doubters” (as in home run baseball lingo) for F. P. Rumrill. But there were definitly Rumrills in Hillsborough (also written Hillsboro) notably a Frank G. Rumrill, born in NH December 1866 who appears on the 1900 Federal Census.

Sources:  Gouache. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouache. (accessed December 11, 2016).

“Arthur Burdett Frost (1851 – 1928) The Music for the Dance.” Copley Fine Art Auctions. (auctions.bidsquare.com) Accessed December 11, 2016.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Hillsborough, Hillsborough, New Hampshire; Roll: 947; Page: 22B; Enumeration District: 0084; FHL microfilm: 1240947. (Ancestry.com)