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File:ItAotS postcard origins.jpg

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Summary

Description
English: An embossed chromolithographic postcard of a seaside scene, circulated in the United States circa 1907–08. The illustration was used for the cover design of the 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel.

The illustration depicts five bathers at the seaside. In the foreground, two male bathers are swimming in the water while a female bather is seated on a dock. In the background, two other swimmers poke their heads out of the water, and farther out on the horizon three ships are sailing. An alternate version of the postcard without the gold detailing also circulated around the same time period; see "Other versions" below.

The numerals "205/6" are printed on the backside of the postcard, but there is no name or identifying information for the publisher or artist. It was a "divided back" postcard, with the left side to be used as space for the sender's message and the right side to be used for the address and postage stamp(s). According to FortLewis.edu, U.S. postal regulations began allowing such "divided back" postcards starting March 1, 1907—which is consistent with the dating of the postcard, detailed below. Before then, the backside could only be used for the address and any message had to be written on the postcard's front.

The postcard was just one in a series of similar seaside illustrations, which by all appearances were produced by the same artist; examples of other cards in the series can be seen at TheStrut.com.
Date
English: The eBay listing's description notes that this copy of the postcard was postmarked (in Pennsylavania) in 1908. Other known copies of the postcard were postmarked 1907–08: the copy on Cardcow was postmarked (in White Hall, Montana) on February 28, 1908, and the copy seen on Imgur appears to have been postmarked (in East St. Louis, Kansas) in 1907, though it is somewhat difficult to read because the postmark was imprinted over other text.
Source
English: Scan via a 2012 eBay listing, which is now a dead link. There is an archived version as of March 23, 2016; unfortunately, the images attached to the listing were not saved. Other copies of the postcard have been scanned (front and back) at Imgur and Cardcow (alternate version without gold detailing). Note that the backsides of both postcards are identical (except for the letter-writing and postmarking), despite the difference that one was printed with gold detailing and the other was not.
Author
English: Anonymous. Neither the illustrator nor the publisher/printer are identified on any currently known copies of the postcard, nor have they been identified by secondary sources.

No artist's signature appears on the illustration itself (or on other postcards in the same series). The liner notes for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea contain the credit "Art Direction: Chris Bilheimer & Jeff Mangum", without describing (much less attributing) the postcard used to create the cover design. On page 81 of Kim Cooper's 2005 book about In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (#29 in the 33⅓ series, ISBN 0-8264-1690-X), it is described simply as "a vintage European postcard of bathers at a resort" purchased by Mangum from a thrift shop, with no indication of authorship.
Permission
(Reusing this file)
English: No permission is required because the illustration is in the public domain.
  1. The postcard is presumably a US work. All currently available information indicates that the card was published in the US prior to 1925. All three known copies of the postcard were postmarked within the US. No copies of the postcard have surfaced outside the US, and no copies postmarked in a country other than the US have been discovered. The evidence suggests that the postcard was published/distributed for sale within the US.
  2. The postcard is commonly described as European in origin. If new evidence emerges showing the postcard had been published in Europe at the same time or earlier, it would still have entered the public domain prior to the URAA date of January 1, 1996. If publication occurred in a present-day EU member state, the postcard would have entered the public domain by 1978 at the latest because it was published more than 70 years ago and the author's identity was not publicly disclosed in connection to the image within 70 years of publication (see PD-anon-70-EU). If publication occurred in Russia, it would have been in the public domain by 1958 because the "work was originally published anonymously or under a pseudonym before January 1, 1943 and the name of the author did not become known during 50 years after publication" (see PD-Russia-1996).
Other versions
File:Bathing beauty 1908.jpg
Alternate version without gold detailing

Licensing

Public domain
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current04:20, 24 February 2012Thumbnail for version as of 04:20, 24 February 2012512 × 784 (356 KB)AnonMooslosslessly cropping
03:33, 24 February 2012Thumbnail for version as of 03:33, 24 February 2012525 × 814 (383 KB)Remurmur~commonswiki{{Information |Description=From eBay listing: "This is the postcard used as the basis of Neutral Milk Hotel's album cover ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'', (1998). It was recently found by Lucie Krovatin at Palette Antiques, a shop in Lambertville, NJ...

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