This view of the high school is unused, unpostmarked, so there's no easy way to date it. It might have been taken in 1909: it looks like a summer day with the new landscaping in full leaf, perhaps the first warm season after the school dedication in 1908. Even though the image might date more than 10 years earlier, it's included here, in the decade of the 1920s, because of the handwritten ink caption that runs up the left edge of the back. It reads "Hi School Salem, Ind." This card is one of several I've collected with captions in the same handwriting. Together, they tell a story of an enterprising local photographer who documented the tourist attractions of Washington County and sold his handmade cards: Who the photographer might be I don't know: He or she may have been an amateur rather than a professional -- there's no credit, no identification of "So-and-so's Studio, Salem, Ind." But, as you'll see in the last of the cards, there may be some clues. (04/20/09) Home | The 1920s | Next card