GWF - Nellie & Ben

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The Postcards of Nellie and Ben

In 1908, postcards were the most popular way to communicate between friends and family. Like email, people would drop a card in the mail to a friend across town letting them know they we be over for Sunday afternoon. Between a sailor and his girlfriend it was a convenient way to pass caring sentiments. For Antoine E. Bentifeld and Nellie McAleer postcards were the vines that held their relationship together during long periods of separation, eventually leading to their marriage. The cards of my collection contain their correspondences during the period of the Cruise while Ben was stationed onboard the USS Rhode Island and before they were married.

This collection provides an insight into what typically was communicated “to” and “from” a sailor in the Great White Fleet. It documents “mail call” for Ben Bentifeld and the methods this couple found to communicate their love privately on the back of a postcard. As a young lady receiving mail from a sailor, certainly she would have been concerned for the text of the postcards from Ben when her mother or father looked at the mail. They solved that by using codes within there cards; first Morse code, and later a self-styled numeric code that is expressed in phrases of three numbers. As you read though these cards “29 – 0 – 52” is an expression of the love between them. On many cards this was the sole message expressed.

A portrait postcard of Nellie sent to Ben

The collection is presented in the order in which the cards were sent and received, sorted by the port visits of the cruise when mail was received. Postmarks and the date stamp affixed to cards received onboard the Rhode Island allow the cards to be matched to the ports for which Ben received his mail.

Postcards from When They Met

The earliest card I have between Ben and Nellie is from April 1905 when Ben was in Pensacola, Florida and felt he shoud send a card of "Uncle Sam's yatch's".

The card is a nice example of a private mailing card with the modern naval fleet of the period.

The collection is limited, an so the next we hear between them is in September 1906. The card is canceled in Boston and sent to her Brooklyn address. Greetings from Massachusetts "We are ordered to Havana, Cuba will leave on Sunday, Ben"

The planned trip was short-lived, for in the next card of the collection, "Hamption Roads, Va., Our headquarters for an indefinate period. no Cuba for us,: AEB"

Fortress Monroe, VA

Feb. 28, 1907

In May of 1907, while still at Fortress Monroe, Ben sent a card for the cristening of the warship Virginia, "A shame to waste such good stuff" "Lemon Soda" In June, the first message in Morse code from Newport, RI. The message,

" . - . . - - - . . . - . . . - . . - . - - - - -"

. - . - . - "Love from Ben"

For the summer of 1907 Miss Nellie McAleer stayed at The Edgewater Hotel on Long Island and received cards from Ben while he was training in Newport, Rhode Island. Three more cards contained the same Morse code message. At this point, Ben had become rather repetitive in that he set two cards twice in a group of six!

During December 1907 Ben received two cards from Nellie with warm seniments, a card from his sister, and a close friend.

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