According to Utah Rails, 1940 was the first year in which Union Pacific produced calendars with scenic photos for each month. Initially, each page was 10 inches by 18 inches; in 1945, they grew to 12.5 inches by 23 inches. … Continue reading
Painters were attracted to New Mexico by the purity of the colors: red rocks, blue skies, green trees. That shows here in this painting, along with the red of chilis hanging out to dry. The painting for this calendar — … Continue reading
Santa Fe continued to issue calendars featuring its western art for more than two decades after Amtrak took over passenger service. This one features a painting of a Navajo family, two of whom break the “fourth wall” by looking directly … Continue reading
Santa Fe calendars date back to 1899. Although the early calendars had a variety of illustrations, starting in 1916 the calendars almost all used a painting from Santa Fe’s art collection. Most of the calendars illustrations are shown on two … Continue reading
This 8″x10-1/2″ calendar isn’t really passenger memorabilia because Santa Fe was no longer running passenger trains in 1979. During most of the twentieth century, Santa Fe produced beautiful calendars using art from its own collection, and it continued to do … Continue reading
This is Morning Gun, who was apparently not a close relation to Morning Star. There is more than one Morning Gun in the Blackfeet geneology, but I suspect this one was born in either 1858 or 1861. Click image to … Continue reading
Morning Star was born in 1888, the seventh child of Spotted Bear and Panther Woman. That would make her about 38 at the time of this portrait. Click image to download a 1.8-MB PDF of this calendar. The PDF includes … Continue reading
All we know about Buffalo Body is that he was born in 1879, which makes him fairly young compared with the subjects of the previous two portraits. He was probably under 50 years old when this painting was made. Click … Continue reading
This painting shows Jim Blood, who was born in 1862. His parents were named Singing in the Middle and Singing Under. Click image to download a 1.5-MB PDF of this calendar. The PDF includes the calendar portion that is omitted … Continue reading
By 1932, the Reiss calendars used a design of simple geometric shapes. I believe that Winold Reiss himself designed the background. Note that the letters are each individually drawn to fit in the space available. Click image to download a … Continue reading
