O’Brien Real Photo Postcards
Real photo postcards of O’Brien family members. George O’Brien (1872-1947), born in New Zealand, is seen here sitting in a model car for a professional photo. A blacksmith by trade, he was a member of the State Guard during the 1919 Boston police strike. The photo was printed between 1926 and 1930, based on the stamp box (playle.com) and white border (fortlewis.edu).
James “Jim” O’Brien (1871-1937), also born in New Zealand, is seen here in his family’s blacksmith shop. This shop was located at Westford Depot, around where Depot Road crosses the train tracks today. They also had a shop in the Graniteville section of town. The difficult to read calendar in the back left appears to date the photo to March 1913. That date corresponds to the early examples of divided correspondence-address areas on the back, which, according to fortlewis.edu, were printed between 1907 and 1914.
W.1998.42a&b