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
Category Archives: Northern Pacific
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
The intrepid-looking fellow standing on the cover of Northern Pacific’s 1886 Wonderland booklet is supposed to be Frederick Schwatka, who is credited with writing more than half the booklet. As a U.S. Army lieutenant, Schwatka achieved fame for leading the … Continue reading
“This is a world of wonders!” opens this 1885 booklet. “Beyond the Great Lakes,” it continues, “lies a region which may justly be designated the Wonderland of the World.” In saying so, this booklet is referring not to Yellowstone but … Continue reading
Northern Pacific began serving Yellowstone in 1883 and this quirky brochure was one of its first advertisements for that service. This particular brochure was published in 1885, but an earlier edition came out in 1883. Click image to download a … Continue reading
Issued 18 years after yesterday’s brochure, this one covers the same ground but does so in a much more visual fashion. We’ve seen the front cover before on a 1963 menu commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Northern Pacific’s last … Continue reading
“The history of the Northern Pacific teems with romance, courage and industry,” claims this hand-typed brochure that, for some reason, NP chose to print on some rather ugly green paper. It might be a little reminiscent of the greens used … Continue reading