Early Model T Fords and horse-drawn wagons share the cobblestones at Fort and Shelby Streets in Detroit, Michigan, as the monumental colonnaded façade of the Detroit Trust Company anchors the right frame and the soaring Penobscot and Peoples State Bank tower rises behind it — a cityscape captured at the precise moment when the automobile age was overtaking the horse-and-buggy era. Written in May 1919, just months after the Armistice ended the Great War, a traveler named Ruth dashed off an enthusiastic note to a friend in Cleveland: "Am having a perfectly lovely time here in Detroit. We took an automobile trip last week-end to Grand Rapids and drove 496 miles!" — a remarkable journey for 1919 and a testament to the growing freedom the automobile afforded. A 2¢ Washington red stamp, postmarked Detroit May 22, 1919, anchors the address side.