Among the Sky-Scrapers, Norfolk, Nebr. — No. 1

A laddered telegraph pole substitutes for a skyscraper in this view of Norfolk Avenue, the first in a series attributed to photographer C. E. Yocam. A familiar joke for Yocam, the composition makes the town’s tallest structure its subject, a common feature of his regional work. The postcard’s hurried message of safe arrival demonstrates its primary function as a pictorial telegram, a dispatch sent by a new arrival before the prairie irony of its title had time to settle with the recipient.