Independent Order of Odd Fellows
A postcard showing the flags of the United States and Australia crossed above an eagle with outstretched wings holding a banner in its beak with the text “E Pluribus Unum.” Above the flags is the text “Independent Order of Odd Fellows.” Next to each flag is the address of the respective country’s head office of the organization.
Comments and Context
In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “This is a souvenir card issued by the Odd Fellows Lodge at Melbourne Australia and distributed among the Odd Fellows of the American Fleet.
I presume many of you are of a wrong impression as to what Australia realy [sic] is. I used to think that Australia was some little Island away off in some corner of the ocean and did not amount to much and when I visited that country I was muchly surprised to find that it was a country nearly as large as the U. S. and equally as well improved and modern in every way and that the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, each a city of half a million inhabitants, are cities of every advantage and as modern as any of the cities of the United States. Australia is one of the chief agricultural countries of the whole world and much of the country is still open for settlement and cultivation. Australia is a place where most all of the people are English and very few of other nationalities are found there.”
