[Unidentified Woman]

From the note beneath the photograph and the addressee information on the back, we know that in November of 1905, Sarah U. Sprague made a trip by rail to Southern Pines, North Carolina. The Raleigh and Augusta Railroad had built the station six years earlier; the railroad helped the town grow by making it more accessible to visitors from other parts of the country. It is unknown why Sprague made the trip from her home in upstate New York, where she had raised her son George W. Sprague (to whom the postcard was addressed) and had been married to Charles P. Sprague, a farmer. Sprague, who was white, probably bought this postcard as a souvenir once she arrived in Southern Pines.