Judging by the number of cards that Mr. Link drew that featured the earth and the other planets of the solar system, he must have been avidly following the Space Race that was enveloping the United States and the Soviet Union at the time.

In 1956-57, the two countries were attempting to send up satellites via a rocket. Werner Von Braun and his team in the United States had launched a Jupiter-6 in September of 1956, a few months before Mr. Link designed this card.

It is not difficult to understand why the Space Race was so intriguing. Imagine living in Schaumburg Township when it was so rural and there was no ambient light. The stars and moon must have been spectacular.

Inside the card, Mr. Link has a drawing of a young boy who, we have to assume, was his son Robert. He appears to be writing a letter to Santa on behalf of his sister, Mary Lou, who was born in 1922 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She would have been 34 at the time. Maybe Mr. Link was feeling nostalgic about both of his children and it was a nod to their childhoods.

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org