Posted on a cold February morning in 1914 — just weeks after the opening shots of what would become the Great War were still months away — someone named "Genev" dashed off a brief note from Washington, D.C., telling of "a very unexpected trip" and promising to be "home sometime last of week." The recipient, whose first name appears to begin with "Mrs." — addressed to a home in Pulaski, Wisconsin — received this hand-tinted view of the then-newly completed U.S. Senate Office Building (today known as the Russell Senate Office Building), its gleaming white marble facade flying the Stars and Stripes above a streetscape busy with an early automobile and an electric streetcar. Published by W.B. Garrison, Inc. of Washington, D.C., this used card carries a green 1-cent Washington stamp and a crisp Washington, D.C. machine cancel dated Feb 27, 1914 — a living artifact of everyday American life on the cusp of a world-changing year.