NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY. ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT:

The Advertising and Publicity Department was responsible for the promotion of the Northern Pacific Railway and its services. It also sought to foster good relations between the company and the communities that it served.

Advertising campaigns long centered on the road's two famous transcontinental trains, the North Coast Limited and the Mainstreeter. The Department was also actively involved in the promotion of resorts, dude ranches, festivals, celebrations, and sporting events--such as the 1965 World Series--along its lines. It also publicized various activities in which the company was involved, as well as its latest technological advances. Advertising and Publicity produced travel brochures, calendars, and posters for distribution to the public; circulated promotional and railroad industry films to clubs and organizations; arranged for the publication of various press releases and legal notices; and it collected articles concerning the company appearing in newspapers and periodicals.

Subject files of the department managers constitute the largest body of materials and contain a wealth of historical information about the company, its rolling stock, its land grants, its advertising and promotional efforts, and many of its leaders. There is also much material on Yellowstone National Park and other aspects of western tourism, on cities and other noteworthy places along the Northern Pacific lines, on the Missouri River Railway and the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, on departmental administrative matters, and on current advertising and public relations activities. The files contain many examples of newspaper and magazine advertisements and other advertising materials produced by the company.

Photographs include views of Yellowstone and other western tourist destinations, cities along the line, and company rolling stock, especially Pullman cars. Timetables include extensive runs of passenger and employee schedules.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Advertising and Publicity Department Records. Northern Pacific Railway Corporate Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession numbers: unknown and 6068; 7579; 7580; 7622; 7623; 7624; 7625; 7626; 7627; 7628; 7629; 7630; 7631; 7632; 7633; 7634; 8460; 9016; 10,109; 10,110; 10,111; 10,112; 10,113; 10,114; 10,115; 10,116; 10,117; 10,118; 10,119; 10,120; 10,121; 10,122; 10,123; 10,124; 10,125; 11,356; 11,357; 11,358; 11,359; 11,360; 11,361; 11,362; 11,363; 11,364; 11,365; 11,366; 11,763; 11,764; 11,849; 11,851; 17,161; 17,348

Processing Information:

Catalog ID number: 990017199020104294

Work on the Northern Pacific Railway Company records was supported with funds granted by the Northwest Area Foundation, the Grotto Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation.

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Includes proofs of photographs and drawings of trains, landscape, vacation locations, cities and towns, and farms, 1922-1925; these proofs were not organized by chronology or by subject matter and are separated into folders for ease in handling. This series also includes proofs of advertisements, 1941-1967, relating to passenger trains, vacation tours, freight service, new equipment, and natural resources.

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Includes advertising literature and paraphernalia issued by the Northern Pacific [NP] during the 1920s. In addition to brochures, flyers, broadsides, and pamphlets are calendars, timetables and schedules, blotters, convention materials, menus, postcards, passenger train stationary, maps and a variety of paper artifacts.

Also includes a two-color (14 x 22 in.) advertising broadside promoting the Northern Pacific Railroad Company's rail service and its land holdings. The broadside's text begins: The Northern Pacific Railroad Line/The Only First Class Route to the Black Hills.

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This series of subject files was maintained by the Northern Pacific Railway Public Relations and Advertising Department, under the direction of William A. McKenzie. The files were used as an historical record of Northern Pacific advertising and as a reference source for new publicity and requests for information.

The files deal with all aspects of advertising and publicity development. Items include correspondence, maps, travel brochures, fare schedules, menus, blotters, photographs, postcards, and clippings, as well as copy for historical articles, advertisements, and radio programs promoting Northern Pacific and the area served by the railway.

Subject coverage includes States and State Parks along the Northern Pacific route, including information on cities, counties, tourism, agriculture, and industry. Also covered are topics concerning American Indians, biographical information about people involved with the development of Northern Pacific or the area surrounding its routes, and miscellaneous subjects relating to the history of the railway including trademarks, Pullman cars, locomotives, anniversary celebrations, dude ranches, and land grants.

The material covers the settling of the Northwest and the development of the Northern Pacific Railroad through 1965. Most clippings, correspondence, and advertisements date from 1930 to 1950.

The files are arranged in broad subject categories and subdivided alphabetically according to the department's original folder labels. These subjects areas are States (including Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin), State Parks, American Indians, Biographies, Advertising, Business, Equipment and Service, and Miscellaneous subjects.

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The records consist of the administrative subject files of department managers L. L. Perrin (1935-1961) and W. A. Gustafson (1961-1971), and include correspondence, memoranda, photographs, and newspaper clippings that contain information on advertising and promotion of the Northern Pacific, its transcontinental trains, and various resorts, parks, celebrations, and activities along the right of way in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. The files generally run from 1951 to 1970; the bulk of the material dates from 1960 to 1969. Certain documents are as early as 1928; some photographs were taken in 1904.

The original filing unit numbering system has been retained: the first six boxes contain sequentially numbered "advertising" files, the seventh sequentially numbered "publicity" files (some file numbers are missing from each run). Together they form one logical, homogeneous collection, and thus have been maintained as such. The department's reverse-chronological ordering of the documents within each file has also been preserved.

A large portion of the collection consists of clippings from Northwest newspapers of various news articles and editorials relating to the Northern Pacific, as well as advertisements and press releases created by the Department. The files also include a considerable number of promotional landscape photographs taken along the line's right of way for use in promotional literature.