Great Northern Postcard Ads from 1924

Posted on by December 14, 2018
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With the introduction of the new Oriental Limited in 1924, Great Northern issued a series of postcards to help advertise the trains. Unlike most postcards, these did not include an address section, so had to be mailed in an envelope.

Click image to download a 213-KB PDF of this postcard.

One side of the postcards reads like a travel log, informing the passengers, or their friends, where they have been on a particular part of the journey. On the other side, half the postcard has an interior illustration of the train — in this case the dining car — and the other half is blank for correspondence. Continue reading →

Miscellaneous Great Northern Stickers

Posted on by December 14, 2018
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Here are four more stickers that I photographed at the Minnesota History Center. The first shows Two Guns White Calf, the Blackfeet Indian who Great Northern public relations people insisted, incorrectly, was the model for the Indian head nickel. This sticker is about two inches by three inches and might have been used on luggage.

Click image to download a 123-KB PDF of this sticker.

The next sticker, which may also have been a luggage sticker, was obviously used on the Upper Missouri Historical Expedition. The story of this excursion train is told in detail elsewhere on this site. Continue reading →

Menu Stickers

Posted on by November 25, 2018
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At about 1-3/4″x2-1/4″, these are much smaller than luggage stickers, which were typically around 3″x6″. These stickers were probably applied to menus to call diners’ attention to selected items available from Great Northern kitchens.

Click any image to download a PDF of that sticker.

Judging from the number of times it was featured on menus of the 1920s, Great Northern seemed to be particularly proud of its chicken pies. Continue reading →

Old Bill Luggage Stickers

Posted on by January 24, 2019
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These luggage stickers, which I copied from Minnesota History Center files, feature Old Bill, which is what the Great Northern called the animal in its original mountain goat logo. Rocky replaced Old Bill in 1936.

Click any image to download a PDF of the sticker in that image.

In this image, Old Bill seems to be standing on the rocks where Going to the Sun Chalets were located. Although Great Northern did not invent the phrase “See America First,” it was the first to use it in a national advertising campaign that included painting it on thousands of boxcars. I wonder if the fact that GN could stand for either Great Northern or Glacier National influenced the railway’s decision to heavily advertise the park. Continue reading →

Glacier Park Chalet Luggage Stickers

Posted on by November 25, 2018
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While the hotel stickers shown yesterday were all rectangles, many of the chalet stickers were cut in distinctive patterns. Although it is unlikely that a tourist would visit all of the chalets on one trip, I’ve sorted these into roughly the order a tourist would see them if they were traveling east to west through the park.

Click any image to download a PDF of that sticker.

Two Medicine Lake is the first stop after leaving East Glacier and the Glacier Park Hotel. The lake is the source of the Two Medicine River, whose topography forms the background for the spectacular Two Medicine Bridge which was and still is crossed by the Empire Builder. Continue reading →

Glacier Park Hotel Luggage Stickers

Posted on by November 25, 2018
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Great Northern and its subsidiary, the Glacier Park Hotel Company, issued a variety of luggage stickers over the years. I found these in the Minnesota History Center. Stickers had minor variations from year to year. Since one of these is for the Prince of Wales Hotel, which opened in 1927, these particular stickers must date from that year or one or two years later, as I was only searching in that period.

Click any image to download a PDF of that sticker.

Unlike most of the other GN hotels and chalets, the Glacier Park Hotel was not in a national park but on railroad-owned land right outside the park. It did offer great views of the mountains. Continue reading →

1925 Glacier Park Postcards

Posted on by January 22, 2019
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These postcards are from the same series as yesterday’s, but exclusively show scenery rather than lodges and chalets. Except for the first one, these sights could all be found not far from Many Glacier Hotel.

Click image to download a 184-KB PDF of this postcard.

St. Mary’s Lake and Going to the Sun Mountain would have been one of the first glorious sights seen on a horseback trip into Glacier. The Going to the Sun Chalets were on the lake positioned to get a view of the mountain, so aren’t in this picture. Continue reading →

Glacier Park Hotel Postcards

Posted on by January 22, 2019
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Although these postcards are undated, I found them in a folder with other items from 1925 at the Minnesota History Center. These show various Great Northern-built hotels and lodges in the park.

Click image to download a 184-KB PDF of this postcard.

Most visitors to the park stepped off of a Great Northern train at Midvale, which GN renamed East Glacier. The station there is just a few steps away from the Glacier Park Hotel. Continue reading →

Upper Missouri Expedition Postcards

Posted on by January 22, 2019
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The Great Northern gave these postcards to members of the 1925 Upper Missouri Historical Expedition to send to friends and relations. I copied them from the Minnesota History Center.

Click image to download a 160-KB PDF of this postcard.

The first one shows the monument the railway erected in memory of David Thompson near a town that the railway had renamed “Verendrye.” Verendrye was a French explorer and Thompson a British Explorer and both had camped near this point several years apart — as did Lewis & Clark several years later. Continue reading →

1924 Oriental Limited Postcards

Posted on by January 22, 2019
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The Great Northern issued this series of postcards promoting its newly re-equipped Oriental Limited in 1924. We’ve already seen one of the cards in the series showing a P-2 locomotive pulling the train through the Washington Cascades. I copied all of these cards from the Great Northern advertising and publicity department archives in the Minnesota History Center.

Click image to download a 172-KB PDF of this postcard.

The first card shows a sleeping car made up for daytime use. The wall panels between the sections offered greater privacy than was found in some sleeping cars, which just had curtains between sections at night. Continue reading →