New in the collection: Red Cross canteen postcard

Image of Raleigh Red Cross canteen

Verso of Red Cross postcard. Message written in pencil.

“The Raleigh Canteen House and Service Station… will cause thousands of soldiers to look back as long as they live to their one hour’s stay in Raleigh as being altogether different than any other experience they had on the way from home to France and from France back home. The Raleigh Canteen and Service Station is like an oasis in the desert; or the shadow of a great rock in a weary journey….”

— From “Raleigh was a welcome stop for WWI troop trains” in the News & Observer, July 21, 1918 (reprinted in Teresa Leonard’s Past Times column)

The Raleigh Canteen was oft-photographed, but I haven’t seen this image online.

“I will drop you a card to let you know that I am well….” the postcard writer tells his cousin in Greenview, Ill. “The Red Cross served us with aples, sigarettes & candy.”

Another postcard promoting the canteen.