Blazing poinsettias and clusters of roses bloom beside a broad concrete drive leading to a Mission Revival stucco home flanked by towering queen palms — a cheerful rebuke to winter sent from sun-drenched Berkeley, California, in September 1913, when a traveler named J.D. wrote enthusiastically about witnessing a solar eclipse from the hills above the bay, mentioning he'd been in Reno and was planning to make a visit to "grasslands." The lush scene, published by Pacific Novelty Co. and addressed to E.C. in Sodus Centre, New York, perfectly embodied the era's California promotional mythology: mild winters, exotic plants, and a lifestyle unavailable east of the Rockies — a postcard serving double duty as personal correspondence and regional advertisement.