A laden hay barge drifts silently through one of Giethoorn's narrow peat-cut canals, its cargo piled so high that a lone boatman — pole in hand — is barely visible beneath the fragrant mound; in the background a classic Dutch wooden footbridge arches over the glassy water while tall elms shade a tiled-roof farmhouse beyond. Giethoorn, a village in the Overijssel province of the Netherlands, earned its affectionate nickname "Hollands Venetie" (Holland's Venice) because its oldest quarter has no roads at all — only waterways and footpaths — making scenes like this the everyday reality of a working agricultural community well into the mid-twentieth century. The photograph captures an era when peat-harvesting and hay-transport by punter (flat-bottomed pole boat) defined the rhythms of village life; today the same canals carry tourist whisper-boats instead. Published by the Koppers brothers' kiosk in the village itself, this is a genuine silver-gelatin real-photo postcard (RPPC) printed on photographic paper, sharp and unposted.