Vintage Halloween Greeting Card with Girl in Bonnet and Black Cat

Like a surrealist Instagram influencer's cottagecore fever dream, this card depicts a little pioneer girl cradling a small owl like a purse dog while a large owl judges her from atop a corn bundle and a black cat aggressively solicits attention from below — a full spectrum of bird and feline unsolicited opinions. The word 'HALLOWEEN' is spelled out across a cascade of jack-o-lantern pumpkins tumbling down the left side of the card, because in 1913 subtlety was simply not yet invented. Behind her, the landscape is dotted with what appear to be headless corn stalk stumps doing their best impression of druid standing stones, while a full harvest moon glows orange on the horizon, completing this pastoral scene that somehow manages to be both aggressively wholesome and deeply cursed. Copyrighted by John Winsch, 1913 — a man who looked at 'girl surrounded by owls, a black cat, pumpkin letters, and decapitated corn monuments' and thought 'yes, this is a card someone's grandmother will cherish.'