As with most things, there really is no way of knowing exactly what the day will bring at the FRHS – or in this instance, what the mail will bring. That is what makes it interesting – or so it is said.
It recently arrived in a plain, No. 7 envelope with a South Carolina postmark, no return address, and a brief, unsigned note: “Thought you would like this for your collection.” Eight words.
Yes, the anonymous donor was correct in their estimation.
Carefully folded within the note was a plastic sandwich bag of the type my mother used for lunches when I was a parochial school kid, and contained within that was a calling card. Not a run-of-the mill calling card, but an extraordinary calling card, perhaps the Holy Grail of Fall River calling cards – rare and desirable to any collector of local ephemera.
Why so coveted? Because it is all in the name.
Printed on the card: Miss Lizbeth A. Borden, Maplecroft, Fall River.
The imprint dates the piece to after circa 1905; its history, at least for the time being, is unknown.
So, thank you, anonymous donor.
