Divided back, unused with writing, Real Photo Postcard. AZO stamp box. Circa 1915.

Price:  $15.00

“Doris Louisa Diefendorf   I year old   Lubec, Maine”

How nice to have both a name and a location (!) for this Real Photo Postcard.

Everything about this photo takes us back to (what we think of now as) a more romantic time:  of course, there is the beautiful Doris Louisa in her white cotton or linen gown, wearing a little necklace for the photo, but also the wood and wicker chair (possibly a rocker) with beautiful scroll work and design that she’s seated upon; the flowered wallpaper behind her, showing large blooms of the type that’s so back in style today for that vintage look; and the gorgeous lace window curtain to her left.

Lubec, Maine has the distinction of being the easternmost town in the United States, and is located on a peninsula on Passamaquoddy Bay. It was settled in 1785 and incorporated in 1811. The population was recorded as 1,359 for the 2010 Federal Census.

The 1920 census for Portland, Maine shows George A. Diefendorf, born about 1886 in New York; Lillian E. his wife, born about 1889 in New York; and their daughter, Dorris L., about 5 years old, born in Illinois about 1915. George’s occupation is factory superintendent. A combination of two separate index’s for Cook County births, gives us the confirmation for Doris’ parents being George Adelbert Diefendorf and Lillian Elizabeth Froschauer, and give Doris’ date and place of birth as July 15, 1914, Chicago. In 1930 the family is living in Rotterdam, New York. George is a superintendent for a steel construction company at this time. Just in adding all the info together it’s seems likely that Lubec, Maine was a vacation spot for the Diefendorfs in the summer of 1915….and it must have been heavenly.

Sources:  Lubec, Maine. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubec,_Maine (Accessed January 29, 2015).

Year: 1920; Census Place: Portland Ward 9, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: T625_640; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 60; Image: 946 (Ancestry.com)

“Illinois, Cook County Birth Certificates, 1878–1922.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009. Illinois. Cook County Birth Certificates, 1878–1922. Illinois Department of Public Health. Division of Vital Records, Springfield. (Ancestry.com)