A Most Interesting & Historical Free Exhibition

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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When Great Northern introduced its all-steel Oriental Limited in 1924, it sent one of the train sets on an exhibition tour together with the William Crooks and passenger cars that were its contemporaries. This blotter, which is similar to ones made for St. Paul, Minot, and other cities, presents this as an educational opportunity when of course it was really just an advertisement for GN’s new train.

Click image to download a 797-KB PDF of this blotter.

The image in the blotter is based on a Great Northern publicity photo taken in one of the railway’s Twin Cities yards. Other than the removal of the background, the photo has been only slightly edited for use on the blotter. Continue reading →

An Announcement of Extreme Importance

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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“The Great Northern will shortly make an announcement of extreme importance to ticket agents throughout the country,” says this card, which was mailed out to agents in late 1923 or early 1924. “Be on the lookout for it!”

Click image to download a 1.6-MB PDF of this flyer.

Since I found this at the Minnesota History Center when I was looking at documents from around 1924, I’m pretty sure the planned announcement was for the debut of the New Oriental Limited, which began running that year. Other announcements may have been possible, but they weren’t likely to be of extreme importance to ticket agents. Continue reading →

Walter Loos Wildflowers Lunch Menu

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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Here’s a lunch menu that was used on the 1923 Chairman’s Special Western Trip. This menu features a painting of wildflowers by Walter Loos. Another of his paintings was used on a 1924 menu previously featured here. A third Loos painting was used in the 1928 Call of the Mountains booklet.

Click image to download a 403-KB PDF of this menu from the Minnesota History Center.

Loos was born in Switzerland in 1887 and moved to Saskatchewan in 1907. His work as an artist led Great Northern to hire him to paint Glacier Park wildflowers in 1922. In 1924, he moved to California where he lived until 1966. Continue reading →

Trick Falls Breakfast Menu

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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Like yesterday’s, this menu card was used on the Chairman’s Special Western Trip and is specifically for breakfast on Saturday, October 13. The menu offers fruit, cereal, eggs, sausage, griddle cakes, hash brown potatoes, bread, and beverage.

Click image to download a 403-KB PDF of this menu from the Minnesota History Center.

We’ve seen this menu cover on a 1923 a la carte menu folder used in a Great Northern dining car. Great Northern probably figured the chairman only needed cards, not a folder, because the number of selections was smaller.

Heaven’s Peak Dinner Menu

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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In 1923, Ralph Budd was president but Louis Hill was still chairman of the board of the Great Northern Railway. This menu is from a Chairman’s Special Western Trip taken that year and is for dinner on Friday, October 12. October was too late for a comfortable trip to Glacier so the destination was more likely to be Seattle.

Click image to download a 390-KB PDF of this menu from the Minnesota History Center.

As I read the menu, it offered a six-course meal: celery or olives, cream of tomato soup, lake trout, cucumbers to clear the palette, green peppers stuffed with sweetbread or roast chicken accompanied by mashed potatoes and cauliflower Hollandaise, dessert, and a beverage. Either the railroad or Hill himself wanted to appear frugal as the menu is printed on a card rather than a folder as would appear in a regular dining car.

Only National Park on a Main Line of a RR

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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The Santa Fe had a branch line that went directly to the rim of the Grand Canyon and Northern Pacific and Union Pacific both had branch lines that went to the border of Yellowstone. But only one national park was on the main line of a railroad, mainly because Congress designated that railroad as the park boundary, probably at the instigation of Louis Hill himself.

Click image to download a 757-KB PDF of this blotter from the Minnesota History Center.

This blotter reminds potential passengers of that fact. I found it in the Minnesota History Center with other items from 1923 and 1924. If the blotter had been published in 1924, it would have prominently featured the New Oriental Limited, so I conclude it is from 1923. Continue reading →

Major General Wolfe and Westerham

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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James Wolfe died leading the British at the Battle of Quebec in the French and Indian War. Despite the loss of their leader, the British won the battle, leading France to cede Quebec to Britain. Wolfe had been born and raised in Westerham and his house, now known as the Quebec House, is now part of the National Trust.

Click image to download an 805-KB PDF of this menu.

This menu’s cover painting, by the mysterious Lendon, shows Wolfe standing on the village green with four buildings in the background and the village church looming behind them. I’m not certain if those four buildings actually existed in 1757, which would have been the last time Wolfe was in Westerham, but they certainly exist today and their modern versions were probably used by Lendon to make his painting. Continue reading →

Oliver Goldsmith 1959 Dinner Menu

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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We’ve previously seen empress menus featuring William Shakespeare, Robert Burns, and John Constable. To this artist series we can add today’s menu honoring Oliver Goldsmith, an eighteenth-century Irish writer whose play, She Stoops to Conquer, is still often performed today. The cover drawing of Goldsmith is based on a portrait by Joshua Reynolds.

Click image to download an 912-KB PDF of this menu.

This dinner menu was used on the Empress of England, Canadian Pacific’s newest ocean liner in 1959. The menu offered two kinds of fish, either beef a l’Anglais, apple fritters, baked ham, roast turkey, cold lamb, and home made brawn, which is apparently made from a boar’s head and is known in the U.S. as head cheese. The left side of the menu suggests that passengers pick one of these as the entrée, plus an hors d’Oeuvres, soup, vegetable, potatoes, and–for a bit of indulgence–two desserts before ending the meal with fresh fruits.

Kickinghorse River Dinner Menu from 1952

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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This menu’s cover photo with a young woman precariously perched next to the river had also been used on a 1949 menu from the Chateau Lake Louise and a 1957 menu used on the Empress of Britain. This one differs from the other two in the rose colored background on the covers. The flag in the lower left corner of the front cover signals this was used on a steamship, in this case on in Alaska service.

Click image to download an 2.0-MB PDF of this menu.

The inside front cover has photos of sights people would see if they continued on north of Skagway: a view from a White Pass train; a steamboat running the White Horse River rapids; a highway bridge across the White River; and Dawson City, Yukon. The unpriced menu offered halibut, cod, fried bananas, roast pork, spring lamb, and duck. Continue reading →

Banff Springs Hotel Lunch Menu from 1947

Posted on by August 21, 2023
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As marked on the cover, this menu was used at the Banff Springs Hotel. It is a little larger than CP dining car menus of that period: about 8″x11″ vs. 6-3/4″x9-3/4″. However, the same photograph was used on a 1950 Alaska steamship menu, which were the same size as dining car menus, so it is likely that this photo could also be found on a dining car menu.

Click image to download an 2.4-MB PDF of this menu.

Unlike the Alaska steamship and most dining car menus of this period, this hotel menu has a photo on the back as well as the front. The back cover photo shows Lake Louise in a clear effort to entice hotel guests to make a trip to the lake. The back cover also lists CP hotels at the time, of which there were 15-1/2 (since one of them, the Hotel Vancouver, being halfowned by Canadian National). Continue reading →