We’ve previously seen some of Great Northern’s series of See America First postcards. In addition to having GN’s See America First logo on the back, many also had a little rhyme about Glacier Park, such as “Where Nature speaks from snow-covered peaks.”
Click image to download a 200-KB PDF of this postcard.
When I posted those cards, I noted to myself that the rhymes on the back didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the images on the front. Now I have several more cards and learned that, for any given image, more than one rhyme might be used, almost as if the fronts and backs were printed separately and at random. This was possible because the image descriptions were on the fronts, not the backs, of the cards. The back of this card above says, “The grandeur of the scenes seen there/You’ll carry with you–everywhere.”
Click image to download a 238-KB PDF of this postcard.
The front of these cards say the photo were taken (or at least copyrighted) in 1909 by Fred Kiser, a Portland photographer hired by Louis Hill in 1905 to help promote the creation of Glacier Park. The back of this card, which shows the same lake as the first photo from a different angle, reads, “Grandeur dwells on every side/See it on a horseback ride.”
Click image to download a 221-KB PDF of this postcard.
This card shows the view visible from Many Glacier Hotel, which probably wasn’t yet built when the card was issued. The back reads, “When mountains surround and beauties abound.” This photo was copyrighted by Fred Kiser in 1911. Glacier became a national park in 1910 but Many Glacier didn’t open until 1914.
Click image to download a 220-KB PDF of this postcard.
This picture of Two Medicine Lake mentions “Two Medicine Camp.” In 1914, GN built a chalet on the site of this camp, thus confirming that these cards were issued before that year. The back of the card reads, “The grandeur of the scenes seen there/You’ll carry with you–everywhere.”
Click image to download a 236-KB PDF of this postcard.
I presented this card before, the back of which read, “Let your foreign bubble burst/Go and See America First.” This one is the same on the front, but the back reads, “When mountains surround and beauties abound.”
Click image to download a 243-KB PDF of this postcard.
Here’s another view of Lake St. Mary. The rhyme on the back is the same as the previous card.
Click image to download a 240-KB PDF of this postcard.
While Lake St. Mary is on the east end of what would eventually become the Going to the Sun Road, Lake McDonald was on the west end. The back reads, “The grandeur of the scenes seen there/You’ll carry with you–everywhere.”