Thousands of sun-seekers pack the sand as the famous Coney Island boardwalk stretches behind them in brilliant summer haze — this lush linen card from 1937 captures the golden age of New York's "Playground of the World" at its most exuberant, with bathers in the surf, children perched on jetty rocks, and the landmark half-dome of the Brighton Beach Baths gleaming white in the distance. Postmarked Madison Square (New York City) in August 1937, the card was dashed off in a slanted hand by someone who had apparently encountered Atlantic City along the way — the message references "Atlantic City" amid the diagonal script — and sent to Mary at 1601 Argonne St. NW, Washington D.C., Apt 302, a neighborhood that in the 1930s housed many federal workers and their families. The Curt Teich chromolithography renders the scene with almost painterly warmth: amber sand, turquoise water, red-roofed pavilions flying American flags.