1918 Bandstand at Place President Wilson Dijon France Postcard

About This Vintage Postcard

This evocative postcard features the Kiosque à Musique (bandstand) in Place Président-Wilson, a central square in Dijon, France. The ornate Belle Époque ironwork structure is shown during a quiet moment, with two young children posing at the base of the steps and a horse-drawn carriage visible on the left. To the right, rows of stacked wooden chairs await an audience for a future performance. While the square was originally named Place Saint-Pierre, it was renamed in honor of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson after World War I, making this card a significant piece of post-war commemorative history.

Details

Era: Divided Back (1918)
City: Dijon State or Region: Burgundy (Bourgogne)
Country: France
Topic: Dijon Bandstand, Place President Wilson, French Architecture, Horse and Carriage, Woodrow Wilson Tribute, Belle Epoque Style
Condition: Circulated
Postage: 40 centime blue Sower stamp, postmarked Paris 1920
Address Side: Divided back
Orientation: Horizontal (Landscape)
Artist / Photographer: Neurdein Freres (ND Phot)
Publisher: Neurdein Freres (ND Phot)
Printer: Imp. Phot. Neurdein et Cie
Print Type: Sepia-toned Collotype (Phototypie)

Additional Information

The back of this card is postmarked October 30, 1920, in Paris and features a 40 centime blue Sower stamp. It is addressed to Mademoiselle Bernadou at 25 Avenue Wagram in Paris, a prestigious street leading to the Arc de Triomphe. The publisher, Neurdein Freres, was one of the most prolific French firms of the era, and their ND logo is visible on the front. This card is a perfect example of a post-war mailing, as the renaming of the square for President Wilson was a major gesture of French-American friendship following the Great War. The handwriting is a formal French cursive, typical of the era's social correspondence.

The postmark is a desirable Paris Gare PLM machine cancel, specifically used at the Gare de Lyon railway station. This mark is prized by postal history collectors as it identifies mail processed through the famous Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee line, one of the most important transit hubs in Europe. The clear, wavy lines of the machine cancellation were a modern innovation at the time, designed to efficiently handle the massive volume of international and domestic mail passing through the French railway system.

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