This postcard was commercially printed and entitled “Golfo della Spezia.” In a short message written in black ink and postmarked June 13, 1937, Dr. John R. Brinkley informs his aunt that he and his son had eaten in Lerici while traveling to Pisa and Rome. The card thus documents the Brinkley party’s 1937 European trip and hints at the itinerary described in Brinkley’s longer letter-card from Vienna later that month. The sender, John Romulus/John Richard Brinkley, was a colorful and controversial figure in American medicine and broadcasting. Born in 1885 near Beta, North Carolina, and the illegitimate son of John Richard Brinkley and Sarah Candace Burnett, he was raised by his father and stepmother, Sarah Mingus, after his mother’s death. Brinkley briefly studied at Bennett Medical College in Chicago and at the Eclectic Medical University of Kansas City, which were diploma mills. In 1917, after moving to Milford, Kansas, he claimed to restore men’s sexual vitality by transplanting goat gonads and promoted these procedures on a powerful radio station he built, KFKB. His profitable practice gained him national notoriety and allowed him to run three times for governor of Kansas; after losing his radio and medical licenses, he moved his hospital and broadcasting operations to Del Rio, Texas, in 1933. By the mid-1930s, he continued to advertise glandular injections from a border blaster radio station while living extravagantly and defending himself against mounting legal charges and medical criticism. The postcard is addressed to Amanda Avaline Wike Jackson, often called “Aunt Mandy.” A member of Brinkley’s extended family in North Carolina, she married James Thomas Jackson and had two sons, J. Lee and William Albert. Brinkley spent part of his childhood living with Aunt Mandy after his mother died, and he maintained a warm correspondence with her into adulthood. His traveling companion mentioned on the card, John R. Brinkley III, was the only child of Brinkley and his second wife, Minerva "Minnie” Jones; born in 1927, the boy was sometimes called “Johnny Boy.” The card also hints at broader stories. By the mid-1930s, Brinkley was a wealthy yet troubled radio doctor who had moved his clinic from Kansas to Texas after regulators shut down his licenses. His trip to Europe shows both his wealth and his wish to seem legitimate. The recipient, Amanda Avaline Wike Jackson, was a relative who helped raise Brinkley during his childhood. Their ongoing correspondence highlights lasting family connections. The postcard’s image of Lerici links Brinkley’s story to a region known as the “Gulf of Poets,” where Percy and Mary Shelley lived, Percy Shelley drowned, and Lord Byron found inspiration. Although Brinkley’s note is short, the postcard’s picture carries broader cultural significance. The Gulf of La Spezia—a protected bay on Italy’s Ligurian coast—has long been called the “Gulf of Poets” because writers like Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron found inspiration in its scenery and lived nearby. In this way, the card links Brinkley’s notable American career to a place famous for literary and artistic innovation.