Anna Gottlieb

From the steamer trunk.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of E.H.

This lovely young lady is Anna Gottlieb. On the back of this postcard, she wrote to her friend, Minnie Rossow:



The postmark is hard to read; to me it looks like May 1, 1911 — which would make sense, in light of Anna's "I hope you will graduate," since we know that Minnie did graduate from eighth grade in June 1911.

Anna was more or less Minnie's age, born around 1896. She was the eldest child of John and Mary Gottlieb. The 1900 Census shows the Gottliebs farming in Calumet Township, Lake County; by the 1910 Census they had bought a farm in Portage Township, Porter County. (If I'm reading the plat map correctly, they lived on Cleveland Ave./W 700 N just west east of its junction with Willowcreek Road.) After 1910 I lose track of Anna; it seems both she and her sister, Agnes, had left the household before the 1920 Census.

I'm puzzled as to why Anna scrawled "Please hide this" in the left margin. What on earth was objectionable about this postcard? Perhaps her comment, "I surely would liked to been along last Sunday," hinted at something her parents wouldn't have approved of; if so, they must have been very conservative, as I can't image our level-headed Minnie Rossow doing anything too outlandish.