Wheeler took symbolism to a new level in 1898 by portraying a topless woman framed by a cornucopia of produce and accompanied by two naked cupids, one holding a miniature steam locomotive and the other a miniature sailing ship, on … Continue reading
If the cover of Wonderland ’96 looked modernistic, the one for Wonderland ’97 looks like the cover of a Harry Potter story or some other fantasy novel. A Montana State University master’s thesis on early Yellowstone advertising notes that most … Continue reading
For 1896, Olin Wheeler at once simplified the titles but almost completely broke from the travelogue format. In that year and the following ten years, the titles would simply be “Wonderland” followed by the number of the year — two … Continue reading
Archive.org has two copies of Olin Wheeler’s 1894 Wonderland, titled Indianland and Wonderland. Neither have covers, so I won’t try to reproduce them here. If you want one, I recommend this one, which was scanned in color instead of black … Continue reading
For 1893, Northern Pacific handed the job of writing its annual Wonderland booklet to Olin Dunbar Wheeler. Over the next fourteen years, Wheeler would transform the series from a mere travelogue to what amounted to an annual magazine with individual … Continue reading
Although the Northern Pacific may have been progressive in hiring a woman to write its 1890 Wonderland booklet, it wasn’t progressive enough to use her travelogue for more than one year, as it had with John Hyde’s. Instead, for 1891, … Continue reading
After running John Hyde’s travelogue for five years straight with only modest changes, NP must have decided it needed something new for 1890. Hyde, who was living in Omaha, had a new neighbor named Robert Peattie, who had recently moved … Continue reading
Having published a brochure based on the fictitious Alice in Wonderland writing home at the end of a trip to Yellowstone, NP decided to write a brochure based on the fictitious diary of a lovelorn Massachusetts school teacher. It is … Continue reading
The 1888 Wonderland booklet gives up what I suspect was the fiction that Frederick Schwatka had written the lengthy section on Alaska. In fact, the only mention of Schwatka was to note that in January 1887 he set out “on … Continue reading
Like yesterday’s booklet, this one is dated 1886. But information in the back describes the tourist season of 1887, so this one must have been published at the end of the year while yesterday’s was at the beginning. There is … Continue reading
