In 1883, Northern Pacific financier Henry Villard celebrated the completion of the transcontinental line with a fabulous “golden spike” ceremony (which didn’t actually use a gold spike), and then promptly had a nervous breakdown over the company’s weak finances. To commemorate this event fifty years later, the Northern Pacific published this folder and cover announcement.
Click image to download a 2.2-MB PDF of this folder.
The folder has an announcement glued on top, which I Photoshopped out of the image shown above. The PDF has the cover both with and without the announcement. Since the interior and back cover of the folder are both blank, I didn’t include them in the PDF.
Underneath the announcement is an image of one of the NP’s Northern (4-8-4) locomotives pulling what must be the North Coast Limited. The lower right-hand corner also has a drawing of one of NP’s Yellowstone (2-8-8-4) locomotives, one of the largest locomotives ever built. The NP was naturally proud of the fact that it pioneered both the 4-8-4 and 2-8-8-4 wheel arrangements.