"Echo Bridge Promenade, Newton Upper Falls, Mass."
Manufacturer: Rotograph
Manufacturer's No.: D 6963
Village: Upper Falls
Filed: Charles River - Norumbega Park
Keywords: Bridges / Aqueducts / Dams
The Card shows:
A monochrome (bluish tint) lithograph of a photographic view of the walkway across the top of the aqueduct, from a viewpoint just beyond the western end of the arch. The stairways and platform dominate the foreground, with a large barrel, presumably a trash barrel, in the left foreground. A woman and young girl are walking on the arch, facing away from the camera in the middle distance. They appear out of scale with the rest of the view and may have been retouched into the picture. The houses and a steeple of the village of Upper Falls are visible at the far end of the span.
This card is typical of the "D" series of Rotograph cards, lithographed images that imitated real-photo cards. The "D" series cards were tinted to resemble selenium-toned photographic prints, with captions in white text, like the reversed captions created by writing in india ink directly on photographic negatives before printing. Rotograph issued many views in three forms identified by the first letter in their manufacturer's number -- the "D" cards were like this one. Cards in the "A" series were monochrome lithographs in a neutral tonal scale, with captions printed in black in a cut-out area or a band across the bottom of the card which was left blank so the sender could write a brief message. The design of cards in the "G" series duplicated the "A" series, but the images were colored, often brilliantly. This card, for example, is matched in the collection by a "G" series card numbered G 6963.
The manufacturer's credit includes the card number up the left edge of the back: "D 6963 The Rotograph Company N. Y., City, (Germany.)" A copyright line runs vertically down the right edge of the card back: "Copyright 1905 by the Rotograph Co." The back of the card is clean except for the Jackson Homestead stamp, a handwritten "Jackson Homestead," and several elongated stains that look as if the card had been laid for a few years atop a couple of dying rubber bands in the bottom of a drawer. The condition of the card is very good. The edges and corners show only slight wear.
Postcard type: Undivided Back
Publication Date: 1905