Leslie Darrell Ragan is probably the best-known railroad poster artist of the twentieth century. His only competition would be Grif Teller, who mainly did calendars but also a few posters for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Howard Fogg, who mainly did … Continue reading
During the 1920s, the interurban Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad, best known simply as the South Shore, hired numerous poster artists to advertise its trains. Of these, the one who eventually became most famous is Leslie Ragan, whose … Continue reading
Born in Germany in 1897, Sascha Maurer loved to ski and paint water colors in the Bavarian Alps. He studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts and, after serving in the German Navy during World War I, migrated to … Continue reading
At least one of these three posters is often credited to an artist named W. Haines Hall, but according to Travel by Train they were all a collaborative effort. “Their family resemblance stemmed from the fact that one man, German-born … Continue reading
Maurice George Logan was born in 1886, three years after Oscar Bryn, and like Bryn grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and studied at, among other places, the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. In 1915, he helped form … Continue reading
John Held Jr. was a well-known cartoonist and illustrator in the 1920s. Born in Salt Lake City in 1889 (the same year, for those who are keeping track, as Maurice Logan), Held claimed he had no art training except from … Continue reading
In 1926, the Northern Pacific Railway became the first to use a 4-8-4 locomotive, which is why this wheel arrangement is often called a Northern. To publicize this achievement, the railway hired Austrian artist Gustav Krollmann to paint scenes along … Continue reading
In addition to his Travel by Train poster, Oscar Bryn did a number of posters and paintings for the Santa Fe Railway. The most famous is his Arizona poster, which looks as if it could have been one of the … Continue reading
Hernando Gonzallo Villa was another in the stable of artists nurtured by the Santa Fe Railway in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in 1881 in Los Angeles to parents who had moved there when California was still … Continue reading
Though born in England in 1881, Sam Hyde Harris was an artist for the Southwest: though he did not move to the United States until he was 15, he was already drawing scenes of what he imagined the West looked … Continue reading
