Northern Pacific inaugurated the North Coast Limited on April 29, 1900. Yet it is indicative of how far the Wonderland series had strayed from being solely an advertisement for NP transportation that the new train was only mentioned once in the 1900 edition, and then on practically the last page and simply to announce when it would be introduced.

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The 1901 edition made up for this with a seven-page article describing the train and accompanied by more than a dozen photographs. But this article was preceded by a 15-page article taking an in-depth look at the history of Northern Pacific’s trademark, the monad. Accompanied by more than a dozen brightly colored illustrations of similar symbols in Asian culture, the article once again revealed Olin Wheeler’s abilities as a historian and not just a writer of advertising copy. Continue reading →

Wheeler took symbolism to a new level in 1898 by portraying a topless woman framed by a cornucopia of produce and accompanied by two naked cupids, one holding a miniature steam locomotive and the other a miniature sailing ship, on the Wonderland cover. It was a strange and daring choice. Americans in the Victorian age only reluctantly accepted nudity in fine art; in commercial art it could provoke outrage.

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In 1916, for example, the U.S. Mint issued a quarter with a vaguely bare-breasted image of Liberty. Unlike the Wonderland woman, no nipples were visible, yet religious leaders were still outraged by the “obscene” and “filthy” coin. Still, Northern Pacific got away with it in 1898; at least, Olin Wheeler didn’t lose his job. Controversial or not, it isn’t really clear what a topless woman, even in symbolic robes, had to do with Northwest travel except maybe to symbolize that railroads offered people more freedom of movement. Continue reading →

For 1896, Olin Wheeler at once simplified the titles but almost completely broke from the travelogue format. In that year and the following ten years, the titles would simply be “Wonderland” followed by the number of the year — two digits in the 1890s and four digits in the 1900s.

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In exchange for this simplified title, readers gained a book with individual chapters providing in-depth information about various new topics. The first part of the 1896 edition seemed to focus on the Northern Pacific in ways that made it more of an ad than an informative book. This included chapters on Northern Pacific’s premiere (but as yet unnamed) train; Northern Pacific country; and Northern Pacific cities. But it also included detailed chapters on the Red River Valley; Yellowstone; hunting mountain goats; the Puget Sound; the north Pacific coast; and Alaska. Some of these chapters provided far more information about certain topics than would be found in a travelogue at the expense of leaving out a more superficial look at some parts of the Northwest. Continue reading →

For 1893, Northern Pacific handed the job of writing its annual Wonderland booklet to Olin Dunbar Wheeler. Over the next fourteen years, Wheeler would transform the series from a mere travelogue to what amounted to an annual magazine with individual articles focusing on different topics each year. While one of the articles was always about Yellowstone, the other topics varied widely.

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Born in Ohio in 1852, Wheeler went to school to become a civil engineer and spent six years helping John Wesley Powell survey the Southwest. He then spent 10 years learning the advertising business in St. Paul, which led to his being placed in charge of Northern Pacific’s advertising in 1892. Continue reading →

After running John Hyde’s travelogue for five years straight with only modest changes, NP must have decided it needed something new for 1890. Hyde, who was living in Omaha, had a new neighbor named Robert Peattie, who had recently moved from Chicago to become the managing editor of the Omaha World Herald. Peattie’s wife, Elia (1862-1935), was herself a prolific writer — by the end of her life she had 25 books and thousands of articles, columns, and book reviews to her credit — so Hyde suggested to NP that they hire her to write the new Wonderland.

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In addition to paying her for travelogue, NP covered all her expenses to the Northwest and Alaska. Leaving in the fall of 1889, she would spend a day in each important city, then take an overnight train to the next city. Sometimes she would catch freight trains between cities, getting to know the train crews as well as information about the cities themselves. Continue reading →