Railroad Nation : The Art of Selling America, 1825-1925.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schwantes, Carlos Arnaldo.

Series:

Railroads Past and Present Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Railroads--United States--History.

Railroads.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2025.

Summary:

"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 collects a broad array of public-facing documents 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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

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: 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: Landscapes Repackaged for Homeseekers

9. Inventing New Vacation Destinations

10. Matchless Pleasurelands and Seasonal Variations

11. Print Works

12. Timetable Tyranny: The Clockwork Railroad

13. Railroad Cartography as the Lie of the Land

14. Meet Me in Saint Louis and Elsewhere: Railroad World's Fairs

15. Looking and Seeing: From Car Windows into the Great Outdoors

16. In Cathedrals of Commerce: 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

About the Author.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780253072252

0253072255

9780253072269

0253072263

OCLC:

1501868839