10/4/09

SANTA FE RAILROAD ad, tattered


This ends my theme of National Parks, Fred Harvey, and the colorful illustrations used to sell the Southwest.

Here's a Santa Fe Railroad ad from Holiday magazine, March 1949. As you can see, somewhere along the line, someone wanted something and took their scissors and did a little clipping on it, chopping out the Native Americans in the lower corner of the illustration. Looking online I haven't found this ad anywhere else so we'll just have to fill it in with our imaginations. To see other ads for the Santa Fe Railroad look here and here. And to read a little history about the railroad click on Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.

Santa Fe Railroad_Fred Harvey_Grand Canyon_tatteredandlost

I think you can see how the style of illustration became pretty iconic, including the paperdoll I posted on October 2nd, Blue Feather and Silver Cloud. Hope you've enjoyed this little visit through this lovely style of illustration all brought to my mind because of the National Park postcards I purchased years ago.

2 comments:

  1. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this.
    I really like the old arty travel posters, AND last year I worked in a National Park in Southern Utah (and visited the Grand Canyon a few times). This is excellent.

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  2. You're so lucky to have worked in a park. Which one? Southern Utah is amazing.

    I'm hoping in time I'll find more old Santa Fe ads. They really captured the expansiveness and the colors of the Southwest.

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