A 1914 New Year Postcard from Janesville, WI

There’s something about a single postcard that can pull you straight into another winter. This one was sent for New Year’s 1914 from Janesville, Wisconsin. It’s a small, ordinary object, but it holds a whole moment in time. In this post, we’ll look at the snowy little world printed on the front, the silver bells and holly, and then flip it over to read a short New Year message from Ma to Bertha. It’s a quiet kind of time travel that shows how people shared art, greetings, and love on the cusp of a new year over a century ago.

A Winter process Back to Janesville, Wisconsin, 1914

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In 1914, as winter settled over Janesville, Wisconsin, someone picked out this New Year postcard, wrote a few lines, and dropped it in the mail. That’s the moment this card holds: a simple holiday greeting moving through the early 20th century postal system.

It’s rooted in Janesville, but what it really captures is a familiar New Year ritual: choosing a card, signing your name, and trusting it to travel across time and distance. More than a century later, this 1914 New Year postcard sits at the crossroads of vintage New Year greetings and early 1900s postal history. It’s the same mix of image and message you see in so many vintage postcards, just focused on one specific New Year’s moment in Wisconsin.

Design Details: Silver Bells, Holly, and a Winter Village

This card doesn’t just say “Happy New Year” in text; it does it in texture and design. The silver bells and holly are embossed, so you can feel them as well as see them. The raised surface gives those bells and sprigs of holly a physical presence, turning the front of the card into something you don’t just look at, you run your fingers over.

All of that frames a winter holiday scene: a quiet village, snow, and that classic early 1900s postcard style that shows up again and again in holiday cards from the era. Silver bells, holly, and a snowy setting turn a small piece of cardstock into something you’d want to keep, much like other pieces of vintage print media from the same period.

Ma and Bertha: A Simple, Profound New Year Message

On the back, Ma’s message to Bertha is short and direct, and that’s exactly why it works. It’s just a brief New Year greeting and a thank you, but in those few handwritten words, this “Ma to Bertha” postcard becomes a record of how people in 1914 used the mail to say “I’m thinking of you” at the start of a new year.

That’s really the heart of these 1914 New Year greetings: nothing elaborate, just a small exchange of love and gratitude that still comes through on the card today. It fits right in with other early 1900s correspondence, like the cards and notes you might find tucked in with vintage photographs or other paper ephemera from the same period.

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Postcards as Art and Memory in Early 1900s America

Cards like this are doing more than one job at once. They show off the printed art of the time and, at the same time, hold onto a specific relationship and moment.

In 1914, that mix of printed image and handwritten note meant a single card could carry both a piece of holiday culture and a personal connection. When we look at it now, we’re seeing postcards as art and postcards as memory, layered together. That same layering shows up across early 1900s ephemera, whether it’s standalone cards or pieces you might spot in a mix of stereoview cards and other paper keepsakes.

Closing

Stepping back from this one New Year postcard, you can see how pieces like this pulled double duty in 1914: they were small, pretty prints you could hold in your hand, and they were proof that someone was thinking of you. Ma’s brief note to Bertha turns a mass-printed winter scene into something personal and specific, and that’s what makes it worth saving and looking at now. If you enjoy these small windows into everyday lives, keep an eye out for more cards like this, each one has its own quiet story tucked between the ink and the paper.