Today in Postal History
 

Turkey to United States
March 12, 1900

This cover was sent from the French Post Office at Dardanelles (present day Çanakkale)
on the Turkish side near the Mediterranean end of the straits separating Europe from Asia.
The first French Post Office in the Ottoman Empire opened in Constantinople in 1812.
There are two Dardanelles CDS.

The cover was then sent to the  French Post Office in the Galata section of Constantinople.
Galata was the cosmopolitan section of the city and home to many foreign nationals.
I assume that the Galata Post Office was where the mail
was consolidated before transport to the rest of the world.
There is a transit mark for Galata for March 13.

The cover was destined for New York City.
There is a New York City receiving mark on the back  (W in circle) but the date is illegible.

The cover was franked with a 1 piaster surcharge on a 25c black on rose paper
Sage issued in 1886 for Offices in the Turkish Empire (Scott 2).

It is interesting that the sender inscribed the date of sending on the front of the cover.

The addressee, Mrs. Harry Bacon, was likely the wife of a prominent architect
who designed public buildings including the Lincoln Memorial.
Mrs. Harry Bacon was the daughter of Frederick Calvert.
Calvert's brother Frank was the British Consul in the Dardanelles.
He and Heinrich Schliemann looted the Hill of Hisarlik, the site of ancient Troy.*

*Thanks to Jim Whitford-Stark for finding these interesting additions to our story.

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