All but one of these blotters are from the Great Northern archive at the Minnesota History Center, so I can confidently date them to 1928. Since the history center does not allow the use of scanners, I copied these using … Continue reading
These blotters from the Dale Hastin collection are from the 1910s to the early 1920s. The first two are dated 1915, and include photos of Marguerite Motie, who was named Miss Spokane in 1912. … Continue reading
My notes say this portfolio, which is from the Spokane Public Library Northwest Collection, was published in 1929, which is probably based on the tattered envelope the portfolio came in. The railway gave much greater care to this portfolio, which … Continue reading
Long before the Great Northern published its famous 1940 and 1958 portfolios of Winold Reiss paintings of Blackfoot Indians, it published this portfolio (which I scanned from the Spokane Public Library Northwest Collection) of Pikuni (Blackfoot) Indians by W. Langdon … Continue reading
This booklet has no date, but since it advertises the “new” Oriental Limited, it is from 1924 or later; and since it does not mention the historical monuments that Great Northern built in 1925, it is from 1925 or earlier. … Continue reading
Though not as colorful as yesterday’s blotters, these offer some variety and show that GN was still calling its two-year-old train the “New Oriental Limited.” The first blotter is a convenient combination of a notepad and blotter. While this might … Continue reading
These attractive blotters advertised the not-quite-so-new Oriental Limited in 1926. The illustrations are signed “FG,” but I have no idea who that might have been. As we will see on later blotters, two years after the train began service, GN … Continue reading
“If its Service, Go Great Northern,” say these two blotters. What the heck does that mean? It must mean, “If you want good service, go Great Northern.” Click images to download a 0.4-MB PDF of each blotter. The real message … Continue reading
The four 1925 blotters shown here mostly have a vacation theme in common. The first one, which was distributed by GN’s Kansas City agent, encourages people to go to Glacier Park. This would be on trains 43 and 44, sometimes … Continue reading
Not as colorful as yesterday’s blotters, these provide examples of the variety of blotters GN used to advertise its premiere train in 1925. The first one shows the train pulled by a P2, 4-8-2 locomotive by Mt. Index in the … Continue reading
