Giorgio Bassani

Postcard SG-171940 from Singapore shows a portrait of Giorgio Bassani by artist L. Lee. Giorgio Bassani (March 4, 1916 – April 13, 2000) was an Italian writer, poet, and editor. He was best known for the Oscar Award winning movie The Garden of the Finzi-Continis in 1970, based on his 1962 novel Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini exploring the city of Ferrara with its Christian and Jewish elements of life.

Navy Pier, Chicago

Postcard US-2558458 from Illinois shows the Navy Pier, a 3,300-foot 1,010-meter long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan, with the skyline of the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area in the background. Built in 1916 primarily as a cargo facility for lake freighters and passenger excursion steamers, the pier today is Chicago's number one tourist attraction that hosts the Chicago Children's Museum and an IMAX theater. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1979.

In the news today, winning over the competitions from Columbia University in New York City, the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago will host the Obama Library, Museum and Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side, located in either Washington Park or Jackson Park.

Compared to the downtown area shown on the postcard, the South Side of Chicago has great disparity in income and other demographic measures, and a reputation for being poor or crime-infested, The Obama Library will not only honor the legacy of the first African American president in the U.S. who had worked at University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus, but also give an enormous economic boost for the South Side.

Middle Bay Light, Alabama

Postcard US-2663940 is travelling to Indonesia showing Middle Bay Lighthouse, also known as Mobile Bay Lighthouse, that is located at the center of Mobile Bay, Alabama. The hexagonal shaped prefabricated screw-pile lighthouse was first lit in 1885.

The keeper's wife gave birth to a baby at the lighthouse in the summer of 1916 during World War I. However, she was unable to nurse the newborn baby. The keeper brought a dairy cow to the lighthouse and created a coral on the gallery at the lower deck. All had to be evacuated when the lighthouse survived a hurricane but sustained damages that year. The light was automated in 1935 and deactivated in 1967. It was placed on National Register of Historic Places on December 30, 1974. To learn more, visit the Alabama Lighthouse Association's web site.

Postcard photo by Carol Highsmith. You can purchase a copy at zazzle.com.

Flag Day in USA

US Flag flying in front of New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas

My postcard US-1900843 would be a good candidate to commemorate the Flag Day on June 14. In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated for the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. A proclamation from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 officially established the Flag Day. National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress in 1949.