Confusing Cards.
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Rotograph often achieved different effects with the same plate by
publishing a card in more than one series. Hence we get A5985 and
G5985, below, both using the same id # for the same view. If they
were keeping a list, they could easily have checked this number across
categories.
But it also published cards which use the same number for different scenes sometimes in the same state, sometimes in entirely different states: |
| Examples
A5548 designates both a view of Riverside Road in Lock Haven, PA, and one showing two churches in Oil City, PA. A7033a designates Concord, MA, the School of Philosophy, but also Boston, MA, The Mall and Park Street, Church A27215 designates both Portland, IN, a view down Meridian St., and Milwaukee, WI, the Main Building of the National Soldiers' Home. |
| and sometimes vastly different numbers for the same view or subject, such as a train. |
| Examples
A106, G106, GL106, and B2300 all show the (then) new Singer Building on Broadway in NYC. B326t and G15323 give the same view of the Hotel Royal Poincina, Palm Beach, FL. B2434 and G60b both depict The 20th Century Limited.
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| Comic and novelty cards are even more unreliable, as three or four differing cards may carry the same number. Collectors who study their own cards or the Excel files available on this site for any length of time will notice numerous other cases of both types. |
