Cover sent from Lima, OH to Florida

March 12, 1888

Lima, Ohio to Florida cover cancelled on March 12, 1888, is backstamped with a postmark that is illegible. The purple ink stamp appears to be a weather forecast reading as "Green Cove Springs / Florida / Weather today: Fair and Sunny," but it is a standard text stamp used as in Green Cove Springs, Florida, for a tourism campaign promoting the never changing good weather. In 1895, the Postal Guide announced the proposal that postmasters print on and circulate postcards with the local, daily forecasts furnished by the Weather Bureau (since 1891 the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture). Some postmasters upon the receipt of first-class mail marked the back of the envelopes with a brief weather update, however, this cover pre-dates that and is for promotional rather than information purposes.