The other day I stumbled upon a postcard I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before, a straight shot of the front of the Administration Building with the Physics Building under construction off to the side and some interesting vehicles near the sallyport:
It’s postmarked from Houston in 1914, about the right date for the construction, and sent to a young woman in Chautauqua, Texas (a tiny town near Abilene which no longer exists). It doesn’t sound like either of them have any association with Rice but Carl seems to have had some sort of unpleasant run-in with education somewhere in his past:
Bonus:
Someone please tell me about that statue on that side of Lovett Hall.
Also, does anyone think the upside down postage stamp signified something?
There isn’t one! If you’re looking at that tall thing in the middle of the box hedges, it’s just a big shrub. https://ricehistorycorner.com/2017/11/01/gate-number-2/
I believe it’s a shrub that’s shorn into a somewhat conical or pyramidal form. It’s been shown more clearly in some earlier RHC photos.
FYI, the Texas State Historical Association’s online entry for Chautaugua (https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrc46) says that its post office was discontinued on April 30, 1914 … which is less than four months after this postcard was received there (on the afternoon of Jan 11, 1914).
Those are touring cars, pretty much the most common body style of that time. Hard to say what they are but Ford Model T is always a good guess.
The cars are amazing! Regarding the postage stamp, I seem to remember a think when I was in high school, that if you put the stamp on upside down it was a sign of special affection.
You would be surprised how many people in the world were named “Ora Arnett” in the early part of the twentieth century. Haven’t been able to identify this one yet.
I was also surprised with the number of Ora Arnetts … some of them were men, too.
But I may have found a possibility. Carl’s postcard message — “How is school teaching …” — as well as census records and family trees on Ancestry.com and other online sources were a great help.
The 1920 Census of San Angelo, Tex., shows (twice! once in a January record, another in a June record) a 26-year-old school Ora Arnett, who was the daughter of Cullen C. Arnett. (Chatauqua, Tex., was about 100 miles northwest of San Angelo.) An Ancestry tree says this Ora married Elisha Hyatt Warnock (https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/ora-arnett_127534416), and this For Stockton Pioneer obituary for him says the couple moved to Fort Stockton “immediately after” their Jan. 2, 1923, marriage … and that she died on Feburary 9, 1974 (https://newspaperarchive.com/fort-stockton-pioneer-aug-17-1978-p-6/).
Another Rice connection might be possible: If this is the same Ora, and the Ancestry tree is correct, then one of Ora’s nephews was longtime Rice art history professor, William Arnett Camfield, who was a son of Ora’s sister, Frances Maurine (Arnett) Camfield (https://prabook.com/web/william_arnett.camfield/769798).
I’m still wondering who “Carl” might be.
Edit: “… 26-year-old school teacher Ora Arnett …”