This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from a 1926 Southern Pacific Railroad advertisement, promoting their service to Santa Cruz, California. The image was painted by famous commercial artist Michel Kady (1901-1977).
The poster features a background of redwood trees with a center inset showing a classic California beach scene with men, women and children at edge of sea, and sailboats in the distance.
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 18"x24" format is an excellent image size that looks great as a stand-alone piece of art, or grouped as a 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. This poster has a 1” white border.
A great vintage print for your home, shop, or business!
HISTORY OF MICHEL KADY, SANTA CRUZ & THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
MICHEL KADY - ARTIST
Commercial artist Michel Kady was born in California in 1901, and was a resident of San Francisco in the 1930s and 1940s. Kady was well known for his illustration work for magazines, and he painted several notable travel posters and menus for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He was also the artist who painted the powerful 1949 Red Cross poster; "Everyone can afford humanity. Give Gladly." Kady moved down the San Francisco Peninsula to Foster City, where he remained until his death on July 21, 1977.
SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA
Santa Cruz (Spanish for 'Holy Cross') is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956.
Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, and about 75 mi. south of San Francisco, the city is part of the 12-county San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area.
Santa Cruz is known for its moderate climate, picturesque coastline, and a lush redwood forest. It is also home to the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, an oceanfront amusement park operating continuously since 1907.
The present-day City of Santa Cruz is located on the site of a Spanish settlement that began in 1791, and included Mission Santa Cruz, and the pueblo of Branciforte. The City of Santa Cruz was incorporated in 1866, and chartered in April 1876. Late in the 19th century, Santa Cruz established itself as a beach resort community.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
The Southern Pacific (reporting mark SP) (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The original Southern Pacific began in 1865 as a land holding company. The last incarnation of the Southern Pacific, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, was founded in 1969 and assumed control of the Southern Pacific system. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company was acquired in 1996 by the Union Pacific Corporation and merged with their Union Pacific Railroad.
The Southern Pacific legacy founded hospitals in San Francisco, Tucson, and Houston. In the 1970s, it also founded a telecommunications network with a state-of-the-art microwave and fiber optic backbone. This telecommunications network became part of Sprint, a company whose name came from the acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.
