Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston

Postcard US-3230012 from Boston was a shaped card showing Faneuil Hall Marketplace near the waterfront and today's Government Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1743, it has been served as a marketplace and a meeting hall since. Because its significance in history as the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, it is known as "the Cradle of Liberty." Faneuil Hall was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1960. One of those famous stops on the Freedom Trail, Faneuil Hall Marketplace is part of Boston National Historical Park that was added to National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade made history today as two LGBT groups marched for the first time after decades of opposition. In 1995, the parade organizers took its battle to exclude LGBT groups to the U.S. Supreme Court and won on First Amendment grounds. Boston’s mayors had boycotted the event since. With an inclusive parade this year, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and other political leaders such as first-term U.S. Representative Seth Moulton took part.

Boston broken another record today after receiving 2.9-inch snow by Sunday evening. A seasonal total of 108.6 inches so far, it has broken Boston’s old record of 107.6 inches since the winter of 1995-96. The buildup of previous snow on side streets even caused the organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade, billed as the second largest in the U.S. in terms of spectators, to shorten the route.

Sailing along Rotterdam

Postcard NL-2675928 from the Netherlands shows Euromast, an observation tower in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Designed by Hugh Maaskant and constructed between 1958 and 1960, it was specially built for the 1960 Floriade. It has a "crow's nest" observation platform and a restaurant at 96 meters or 315 feet above-ground. Euromast was originally 101 meters or 331 feet in height. When the Space Tower was added on top of the building in 1970, it added an additional 85 meters or 279 feet in height. At 186 meters or 610 feet, Euromast is the tallest building in Rotterdam, the second-largest city in the Netherlands. In comparison, the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas stands at 350.2 meters or 1,149 feet. Euromast became a listed monument in 2010.

Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico

Postcard US-2849000 to Germany shows the Arecibo Observatory, a radio telescope operated by SRI International, USRA and UMET under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF), in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Built between 1960 and 1963, the observatory's 305-meter or 1,000-foot radio telescope is the largest single-aperture telescope in the world, used in the areas of radio astronomy, aeronomy, and radar astronomy researches. Scientists who wish to use the telescope need to submit proposals that are evaluated by an independent scientific board. The telescope was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

The postcard was purchased at Zazzle.

Coke Refreshes You Best

Outgoing postcard US-2776598 to Russia shows a vintage Coca Cola advertising poster with a Coca Cola Slogan "Coke refreshes you best" from 1960. It features one of those "Have a Coke" Pin Up girls. It was purchased at the Everything Coca-Cola® store in Las Vegas.

A Cat Peering Outside

Outgoing postcard US-2680023 to New Zealand shows a National Geographic photo of a cat, next to a blue door, peering out of the window of an adobe house at Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. Taos Pueblo is a Native American community with a population of 1264 in the 2000 census. It was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1992 and a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

Copyright by Ira Block/National Geographic Stock. The postcard was created By National Geographic and can be purchased at Zazzle.

Stereoscope : Ascending and Descending

I received a stereoscope card NL-2125293 from the Netherlands today. It shows Ascending and Descending, a lithograph print by the Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher that was first printed in March 1960.

Originally measured 14" × 11¼”, the lithograph illustrates a large building with a never-ending staircase on the top. While most two-dimensional artists use relative proportions to create an illusion of depth, Escher uses conflicting proportions to create a visual paradox, showing one line of people ascending while the other descending all one the same staircase.

In addition to the print in front of the card, the card has a pair of stereoscopic lenses that, when unfolded, allows parallel-viewing two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer; these two-dimensional images are then combined in the viewer's brain to form the perception of 3D depth of the building.