US Troopships of WW I

These picture postcards were given out to returning troops after the First World War, while they were on the troopships coming back from Europe. A military person could mail these cards onboard for no cost. Once they reached the shore, they had to pay to mail it. This particular card is in vertical format and has the "Issued by" wording. Those are identifying features for a card collector, as there are other formats and wording to be seen. This ship was the former German liner Kaiser Wilhelm II before being taken over by the United States. For more information, see: swansongrp.com/jwb.html Image scanned and processed with GIMP.

These real-photo picture postcards were sold to returning U. S. soldiers as souvenirs. The photographers got pictures of the troopships being used to return the military, and then marked them up with words like "ship that brought us home". See: swansonphotos.com/brought_list.html Original photographer unknown, probably from 1919. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Zeelandia_(ID-2507)