First Santa Fe Train - Frank Sauerwein

This postcard was published by Fred Harvey (Hotels-Shops-Restaurants). It is titled "First Santa Fe Train" and is after a painting by Frank Sauerwein (spelled Sauerwin on the postcard). A group of Southwest Indians is viewing the train. The train is barely visible on the horizon, but I thought this would be an appropriate card to start November, since November is National Native American Heritage Month.

Frank Sauerwein (1871 - 1910) specialized in western scene paintings. He was born in the east and received art training in Philadelphia and Chicago. He moved west to Denver in 1891 in hopes of improving his health and spent most of the rest of his life in the Southwest. His travels to the Ute reservation in southwestern Colorado in 1893 began a lifelong fascination with the Southwest and its Native inhabitants. He spent time in Taos and Santa Fe, and visited the Navajo and Hopi reservations. (source)

The Santa Fe (the abbreviation for Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859. Although the railway was named in part for the capital of New Mexico, its main line never reached there as the terrain made it too difficult to lay the necessary tracks (Santa Fe was ultimately served by a branch line from Lamy, New Mexico). The Santa Fe's first tracks reached the Kansas/Colorado state line in 1873, and connected to Pueblo, Colorado in 1876.

Puffer-Hubbard Folding Delivery Boxes

Puffer-Hubbard was a Minneapolis company that manufactured silos, folding deliv­ery boxes, wheelbarrows, and other items. In a previous blog post I showed a postcard advertising Puffer-Hubbard's Panel Silos. The postcard shown here advertises their wire-sewed folding delivery boxes. The top half of the card shows the boxes when they were open and loaded. The bottom half of the card shows the boxes when they were empty and folded flat.

The back of this postcard, used in 1910, points out some of the advantages of using these boxes: "They take up less room in your store, give your wagons an up-to-date appearance, prevent loss of articles and insure their safe delivery."

The illustration below is from a book found on Google.com Detailed plans and instructions for organizing and operating a co-operative delivery system. The boxes could be numbered, making them easier to locate when delivering. This book pointed out that "In addition to the advantages in the saving of time and space, the unique construction of these boxes makes them especially durable and being made of slats they can be kept in repair by unskilled help at a very slight cost."

This ad below is from the Minneapolis Tribune of October27, 1912

New Zealand Lakes on Stamps

These postcards show the scenic stamps of lakes issued by New Zealand in 1972. This 1972 Scenic Stamp Issue featured two lakes from the North Island and two lakes from the South Island. These postcards are from a series of five: one postcard shows all four stamps in the series, and four postcards show the individual stamps in the series.

The following is the issue information from the New Zealand Post website for the 1972 Lake Scenes stamps:

Lake Waikaremoana - 6c
Perhaps the most beautiful lake in the North Island, Lake Waikaremoana is situated near Wairoa, Hawke's Bay. Its star shape and surroundings of forested mountains make it a breath-taking spectacle.

Lake Hayes - 8c
Situated in the heart of the Southern Lakes District not far from Queenstown. A charming lake. It was named for a Donald Hay who sought land in the area. However, a theory persists that it was named after the notorious pirate Bully Hayes.

Lake Wakatipu - 18c
The longest of the lakes in the South Island's Southern Lakes District, Lake Wakatipu is noted for its scenic attributes. It is shaped like an "S" and is of glacial origin. With a length of 84 km and an area of 290 square km, it ranks second in size amongst the southern lakes. The mountains in the background are the Remarkables.

Lake Rotomahana - 23c
A celebrated lake of the Rotorua District. Lake Rotomahana is three square miles in area and occupies an extremely deep volcanic crater. Originally it was much smaller in area and on its slopes were two of the most beautiful spectacles of this thermal area, the pink and white terraces. Both terraces disappeared after the historic eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886. It was then that a new Lake Rotomahana came into being.

The New Zealand Post website is an excellent source of information about New Zealand stamps, both old and new. The Historical Stamp Issues section is the most complete and easiest to use that I have seen from any country.

I am participating in Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

Greyhound Buses at A Century of Progress Exposition

Greyhound was selected as the official transportation carrier at the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago. The company reserved 2,000 hotel rooms and offered transportation and lodging to the fair on one ticket.

Inside the exposition grounds, Greyhound provided bus service using a fleet of sixty specially designed semi-trailer type open buses. The buses had a capacity of 100 persons each. The seats of the buses ran lengthwise and faced outward, permitting passengers a good view.

The postcard above shows a Greyhound bus at the 12th Street (North) entrance. Greyhound operated both a Rapid Transit Service with stops at designated locations and sightseeing tours. The sightseeing tours lasted about an hour and gave a complete view of the fair grounds, passing all the important buildings and attractions. A trained guide told about each exhibit as it was passed. At points of particular interest, the buses stopped while the guide pointed out and explained unique features.

The map below shows the Rapid Transit and Sightseeing routes.

The next postcard shows one of the Greyhound buses in front of the Hall of Science. The Hall of Science was one of the major exposition buildings. It housed exhibits of science and industry.

The next postcard shows two of the Greyhound buses in front of Eitel's Old Heidelberg Inn. This was a German style restaurant seating 2500 patrons. There was German music, and the building included garden terrace service, a lunch room and an old-fashioned Rathskeller.

Old Heidelberg Inn looks like a good place to end our tour.

Greyhound buses themselves were an important example of progress. Greyhound became an American icon and the largest provider of intercity bus transportation. However, 1933 was less than twenty years since the company's beginnings in Northern Minnesota, and only four years since its name was changed to Greyhound Corporation. The Greyhound running dog, which is one of the most-recognized brands in the world, was first used as the company's logo in 1929.

Visit Sepia Saturday for More Vintage Photos

Up And Down The Monon

Wouldn't it be fun to travel back in time about 60 years and take a ride on the Monon Thoroughbred train through this beautiful Indiana scenery? The Thoroughbred streamliner ran between Chicago, Illinois and Louisville, Kentucky. According to the 1950 schedule posted here, we could leave Chicago at 1PM and arrive in Louisville at 9PM.

The Monon Railroad operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana. The railroad was also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway. The Monon name was due to the convergence of the railroad's four main routes in Monon, Indiana. From Monon, the mainlines reached out to Chicago, Louisville, Indianapolis and Michigan City, Indiana.

Below is an enlarged version of the Monon emblem from the back of the postcard. The evolution of this emblem is shown here. The round shape is a wheel and the line under it is a rail. The "M" shape is two teepees side by side, and an arrowhead is above the middle of the "M." MONON is an Indian word meaning "Swift Running."

The Monon Route had its beginnings in 1847 with the New Albany & Salem Railroad, chartered to connect New Albany, Indiana with Salem, Indiana. The railroad celebrated its centennial in 1947. Sheet music and lyrics of "Up And Down The Monon", from the 1947 Centennial Program are shown here. This is the first verse and chorus:

VERSE:
Out Kansas and Missouri way
They brag about the Santa Fe,
The New York Central, B. and O.,
Those are the toast of Ohio,
Kentucky's got the L. and N.,
And Pennsylvania's got the Penn,
In Michigan, it's the Pere Marquette,
But we've got the grandest railroad yet, Oh!

CHORUS:
Up and down the Monon
Everything is fine,
'Cause that rootin', tootin' Monon
She's a Hoosier line,
Up and down the Monon
Everything is fine,
'Cause that rootin', tootin' Monon
She's a Hoosier line,
All aboard!
All aboard!
It's my Indiana home that I'm a headin' toward, Oh!
Up and down the Monon
Everything is fine,
'Cause that rootin', tootin' Monon
She's a Hoosier line.

This is the first of my "Transportation Tuesday" posts.

Minneapolis Knitting Works

These are postcards advertising babies' underwear made by Minneapolis Knitting Works. These have verses based on well-known nursery rhymes: Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe; Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat; Jack and Jill; and Pat a Cake, Pat a Cake. There were also cards with Ba! Ba! Black Sheep and Mary Had a Little Lamb. The verses start out with the usual lines and end with something about the Minneapolis Knitting Works "M" products, for example:

Pat a cake, pat a cake, Baker's Man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it and roll it and mark it "M.B."
Which stands for "M" Band for
Babies, you see.

Minneapolis Knitting Works began as the St. Paul Knitting Works. In 1891 St. Paul Knitting Works moved to Minneapolis and was reincorporated as Minneapolis Knitting Works. The company was located at 620-708 Bryant Avenue North for a long time.

The classified ad shown below is from a July 1920 Minneapolis Tribune and mentions a "new factory." The ad seems unusually long and makes the company sound like a great place to work. Among other things, it says: "In fact you will just smile away the hours, thinking of the good wages receive for such pleasant work, and go home happy and cheerful each day."

There are a number of old Minneapolis Knitting Works magazine ads shown on the web. One of my favorites is a colorful undated Halloween ad shown here. The latest ad that I saw was from 1953 and lists a Utica, New York address for the company instead of the Minneapolis address.

An article in the Utica Daily Press in January, 1952 announced that the manufacturing operations of the Minneapolis Knitting Works were to be transferred to Utica. The Minneapolis mill was described as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Utica Knitting Company. The Minneapolis line of children's and infants' garments was to supplement the Utica company's adult line. At that time, the Minneapolis label was not being replaced by the Utica label, and the Minneapolis comapny's offices were to remain in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Historical Society has a 1952 photo of the Minneapolis building here.

Taiwan Postage Stamps

The postcard shown above is a handmade one sent to me by a Taiwanese Postcrossing member. Those are real postage stamps, still on paper, that are glued to a piece of cardboard and mailed as a postcard. Below are the stamps from the back of the card that were used to mail it--click to enlarge.

I managed to identify most, but not all, of the stamps on the internet. (It probably would have been easier to go to the library and look in a stamp catalog.)

On the front, the stamp in the top left corner is a Norwegian Forest Cat from a 2006 series of pets. Below that is a bird (Dendrocitta formosae) issued in 2008 in a “Birds of Taiwan” definitive stamp series. The flower below that is a Hibiscus sabdariffa issued in 2009 in a definitive flower series. The stamp in the top right corner is a stamp from a lighthouse series of 1991. In the bottom right corner is a pair of stamps showing the Paphiopedilum sp. from a definitive series of orchids of Taiwan issued in 2007.

On the back are two stamps that were part of a souvenir sheet based on Disney’s animated movie“Finding Nemo.” This was issued to stimulate interest in philately among youths. You can see the souvenir sheet here. There is also another bird (Dicrurus aeneus) from the 2008 "Birds of Taiwan" series.

If you look closely at the stamps, you will see that some are labeled "Republic of China", some "Taiwan," and some "Republic of China (Taiwan)." In 2007 stamps began to be labeled "Taiwan" instead of "Republic of China."

I am participating in Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog