These are simply the best posters available! You will be thrilled with the image quality, vivid colors, fine paper, and unique subjects.
OUR POSTERS ARE SIZED FOR STANDARD OFF-THE-SHELF FRAMES, WITH NO CUSTOM FRAMING REQUIRED, PROVIDING HUGE COST SAVINGS!
This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from an original 1950s advertising poster for the Santa Fe Railroad’s service to the Southwest, painted by renowned Southwest illustrator Willard Elms.
The vibrant colors and detail of this classic image have been painstakingly brought back to life to preserve a great piece of history.
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
The 13"x19" and 24”x36” formats are excellent image sizes that look great as a stand-alone piece of art, or as a grouped visual statement. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom framing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online. The 24”x36” poster has a 1” white border.
A great vintage print for your home, shop, or business!
HISTORY OF THE SANTA FE RAILROAD & ARTIST WILLARD ELMS
SANTA FE RAILROAD
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (reporting mark ATSF), often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States, named after the cities and towns of Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe. Chartered in February 1859, the railroad reached the Kansas–Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado, in 1876. To create a demand for its services, the railroad set up real estate offices and sold farmland from the land grants that it was awarded by Congress. Despite the namesake, its mainline did not directly serve Santa Fe, due to the mountainous terrain, the metropolitan city of Albuquerque instead served New Mexico and the Santa Fe area.
The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport, an enterprise that (at one time or another) included a tugboat fleet and an airline, the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway. Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not accessible by rail, and ferryboats on the San Francisco Bay allowed travelers to complete their westward journeys to the Pacific Ocean. The AT&SF was the subject of a popular song, Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer's "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", written for the film, The Harvey Girls (1946).
The railroad officially ceased operations on December 31, 1996, when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.
WILLARD ELMS
Willard Elms (1900 – 1956) received his art education at the Art Institute of Chicago, and later became a teacher there. Elms owned an art studio in Chicago, and his primary client was the Sears Roebuck catalog. He also was a radio announcer for WGN radio in Chicago.
Elms came to Arizona as an established poster and fashion artist and settled in Tucson in 1949. He painted numerous desert landscapes, scenes of San Xavier del Bac Mission at sunset, and frequently used the Indian genre. He became enamored with the desert around Sedona, and around 1950, he brought his family there to continue his work with local desert landscapes.
The Santa Fe Railroad commissioned Elms to create advertisements, and he produced the famous image of a little Indian boy looking for the Santa Fe Chief.
Willard Elms died in Sedona, Arizona on May 2, 1956.
