This Toronto Litho Canadian Cities Series pioneer postcard showing vignettes of Winnipeg was mailed with a 2¢ QV Numeral stamp from Montreal with a Montreal Flag C cancel on August 8, 1901 to Courtenay-Loiret, France, and bears a receiver dated August 19th.

The Toronto Litho Canadian Cities Series pioneer postcard was part of correspondence between two women, Madeleine Ellis in Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood at 66 Glen Road, the other, Martha Antoine, in Staouéli-Trappa, Algiers in Algeria. Staouéli is a municipality in Algiers province, Algeria.

In 1843 the Trappists obtained a grant of 2500 acres of land on the site of the Battle of Staouéli (fought on June 19, 1830 during the French conquest of Algeria) where they built a monastery where 100 monks lived and worked. The card appears to be addressed to the vicinity of the monastery, which is no longer active.

The Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (also known as “Trappists”) is a Roman Catholic contemplative religious order, consisting of monasteries of monks and monasteries of nuns.

This Toronto Litho Canadian Sports Series pioneer postcard was mailed with a 2¢ QV Numeral stamp from Toronto with a Flag “A” cancel dated February 5, 1900 to Meersen, Holland, and shows a Meersen receiving cancel dated February 16th.

A Toronto Litho Canadian Cities Series postcard showing Toronto scenes has been added, mailed with a 2¢ QV Numeral stamp with a Montreal Flag cancel dated October 7, 1901 to Budapest, Hungary, with a Budapest receiving cancel.

In recognition of the season, I’ve posted a Toronto Litho Canadian Cities Series pioneer postcard of the Halifax design, with a Xmas & New Year’s Greeting printed on the reverse. The card was mailed from Halifax on January 4, 1900 to Herr Aug Goetze, Bahnhof, Zittau YS, Germany (a city in the south east of the Free State of Saxony, Germany, very close to the border tri-point of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic) with a Zittau Jan 17 1900 receiver. The sender was A. Burnham of New York City. The card is of particular interest, as it was initially printed in 1898 with the year 1898-9 in the greeting, which was subsequently overprinted with 1899-1900.

This Albertype postcard showing the Old Clock Tower and Citadel in Halifax is postmarked November 2, 1903 to Nelson, New Zealand, where it was received December 17 with a receiving cancel.

This example of a Toronto Litho pioneer postcard from the Canadian Cities Series shows a late use of a 2¢ Jubilee stamp, no. 52, mailed March 22, 1904 to Sliema, Malta.

There is extensive correspondence on the reverse from H.B. Currie to a collector in Malta with whom he had been corresponding. H.B. Currie was a post office clerk in Walkerton in the 1901 census, living as a roomer in a local residence at the time. Born October 14, 1875, he would have been 28 years old when he mailed this card. Currie sought to sell the collector a map of Kimberly & Boshof, South Africa. The 2’ x 3’ map on canvas folded into pocket size, and was given to him by his brother who served in the Boer War.