Almost one hundred years ago the young sailor, Robert James Richardson wrote home to his brother and family during his service in the Spanish American War. Close examination of the tattered and yellowing envelope tells the story. It began it's month long journey with a Shanghi postmark of 9 January, 1901 and it's subsequent travels were documented by the postmarks it received along the way.

15 January, 1901 Yokohama Japan

2 February, 1901 San Francisco, CA

7 February, 1901 Snow Hill, MD

13 February, 1901 Box Iron, MD where it was forwarded on to Chincoteague, VA where his brother moved.

September 1998 Web Page author, George E. Richardson III