This 1941 calendar completes my collection of UP calendars between 1940 and 1996, the years they came out in this format. This calendar is 12-1/2″x22-3/4″, the same size as most other UP calendars during those years. However, my 1942, 1943, 1944, 1947, and 1948 calendars are 10″x18″. This may have been a concession to wartime paper shortages, but I have seen both sizes for 1949 and 1950, so it is possible UP published both sizes until 1950, after which it used only the larger size.
Click image to download an 15.0-MB PDF of this calendar.
The photographs in this calendar are certainly beautiful, but they focus on the natural resources of the Union Pacific West, not its tourist attractions. Most photos show crops, livestock, timber, or mining. One photo shows a Union Pacific freight train and one shows the Sun Valley opera house, but there are no photos of passenger trains.
| Month | Photo |
|---|---|
| January | Open-pit copper mine |
| February | Boulder Dam |
| March | Challenger freight train |
| April | Sun Valley opera house |
| May | Hood River orchard |
| June | Sheep |
| July | Timber cutting |
| August | Wheat harvesting |
| September | Potatoes |
| October | Sugar beets |
| November | Cattle |
| December | Orange grove |
None of the photos in this calendar appear on any Union Pacific menus that I have seen. I don’t recognize any from Union Pacific booklets or brochures either, though some may have been used in magazine ads.
Although I now have a complete collection of UP calendars in this format, my 1949 calendar is missing a page. Including that page, I count a total of 458 unique photographs and 28 paintings on the 1940-1970 calendars, of which 87 photos and six paintings were also used on menu covers.