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This is a scan of a postcard collected right after World War One by my grandfather, Grover Hendricks. He served as an ambulance driver with the US Army and participated in the Battle of Verdun, one of the most hellish sieges of the war. It's one of hundreds of postcards I inherited from him, but have never really known what to do with. I have no backstory on any of them or how they were acquired, but most were probably just souvenirs bought off a rack. The cards mostly show street scenes like this or other places of interest, some architecture, some railroad panoramas, etc. They all pre-date the war and may be the only examples left in existence. I'm always struck by how unique an experience being photographed must have been at the time. These people have all stopped in the middle of their daily routines and just stood staring back at the camera, some from blocks away. None of them feel staged or abnormal, just a short interruption in a normal day. I'm also sure that many of these places didn't survive that war, let alone the far bigger one that followed. They're a window on a time and place that's gone forever and fast receeding from memory.