From passenger tickets, wall calendars, and advertising posters to train orders and bills of lading, railroads have left a colorful paper trail across America. In Railroad Nation, historian Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes examines a fascinating array of these materials, showcasing the railroad industry's incredible variety of eye-catching illustrations to enliven their timetables and promotional brochures.
Schwantes traces the evolution of railroad commercial art from drab black-and-white broadsides and text-only advertisements that the early railroads placed in local newspapers to the riotous mélange of color graphics in the early twentieth century, when the visual appeal of public timetables and their thousands of different brochures enticed settlers to create farms, ranches, and towns alongside newly laid tracks.
Railroad Nation offers readers an unparalleled look at the ephemera of the railroad industry, highlighting the vibrant history of railroading in America through its rich tapestry of visual materials.
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: Railroad Imprints
Section I: Railroad Time and Space
1. Timeline and Overview: The Two Lincolns and the American Railroad
2. Coming to Terms with the Wonder of the Age
3. Spatial Reorientation; or, Passages to Elsewhere
4. God's Time versus Railroad Time
5. The Battle of the Gauges
Section II: Railroad Commercial Art
6. The Compass of Opportunity
7. Railroad Imperialism and Nation Building
8. Magician's Wand; or, Landscapes Repackaged for Homeseekers
9. Inventing New Vacation Destinations
10. Matchless Pleasurelands and Seasonal Variations
11. Print Works
12. Timetable Tyranny; or, The Clockwork Railroad
13. Railroad Cartography as the Lie of the Land
14. Meet Me in Saint Louis and Elsewhere: Railroad World Fairs
15. Looking and Seeing: From Car Windows into the Great Outdoors
16. In Cathedrals of Commerce; or, Celebrating the Railroad Landscape
17. Design Matters: From Jim Crow to Phoebe Snow
18. The Quest for Speed
19. Railroad Graphics Conscripted for the Duration
20. America's Second Transportation Revolution
Conclusion: Putting Things in Perspective
Notes
Index
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