May Time Is Play Time

This is the collection that never ends.  I've been doling it out since 2013, and I've still got plenty of these cards to go.  To recap, I bought an envelope of postcards from a dealer who called it the flirtation collection.  (Click on flirtation in labels to see other cards from the envelope.)  Those cards that are either photographs or are based on photos get posted here.  There are a few cards that look like illustration, so those end up on my Fair Use blog.   I'm not going to go into the history of the publisher, Theodor Eismann, but, info on Theo can be found on other posts.

This card was used.  The message, "Dear Etta, I have intended to write you a letter but I have been so busy I couldn't find time to write to any body.  How is everything at Kingfield.  Write when you can.  Love Edna.  Hebron Academy,  Hebron Maine."   Mailed to "Mrs. Anis Vose, Kingfield, Maine."  And no, I have no idea how Anis became Etta.  And, the postmark, "HEBRON ME., JAN 5 9 AM, 1912."  No indication whether Edna was a student or teacher at the Hebron Academy.

Now, about Hebron Academy.  I confess, when I Googled the school, I didn't expect much, but was surprised by what I found.  Hebron, both the town and the school, were founded by revolutionary war veterans who were granted land in recompense for their military service.  At the time, Maine was still an unincorporated territory of Massachusetts.  The  Hebron Academy admits students from the sixth through twelfth grade, and is one of the oldest private schools in the United States.  It was chartered in 1804 and opened to students in 1805.  It's a coed boarding school that also accepts local day students.  It  has accepted both girls and boys since it opened.  During the nineteenth century students ranged in age from ten to the thirties. Today, enrollment is capped at 300 students.  Fifty percent of students are from other countries.  Forty percent are from China.  Some of the graduates have included Leon Leonwood Bean.  Yes, that L.L. Bean.  Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln's first Vice President.  And finally, in a category all his own, George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party.  .