Trains on US Advertising Covers and Patriotic Covers
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PROPAGANDA

WE ASK OF CONGRESS CHEAP INLAND and OCEAN POSTAGE

This is a famous and popular cover, on which the train symbolized inland mail, and the steamer ocean mail - part of the campaign in the 1850s to lower and standardize postal rates in the US. It was the US equivalent of the campaign for Universal Penny Postage in the UK (see below). The creator of this cover was Barnabas Bates, a leader of the New York Cheap Postage Association. Two copies below.

If you let your mouse arrow rest over each of the images above, a box will pop up with the auction data for that item. You may wonder why the one on the left failed to sell at $1,500, yet the one on the right sold for three times that, only two years later. Their general condition is very similar. I think the answer lies in their cancels. The auction description for the item on the left says in part, "tied by grid and matching rimless...datestamp". Well, if you say so. The cancel is rather unobtrusive, and if it ties the stamp, does so unobtrusively. The item on the right, however, needs no hype - its cancel/datestamp is dark, clean, and clear, and ties the stamp dramatically.

Construction of a transcontinental railroad was a popular dream to Californians in the mid-19th century, promoted via advertising covers such as these, with slogans such as "But we must have the (train)", "In hope of the (train)". The dream came true, of course, on May 10, 1869, with the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Point, Utah.

RAILROADS

These are covers sent by railroad companies.

No train here, but this is an early (1861) cover of the Pennsylvania Rail Road with a nice embossed cameo on the back flap

Here's a nice embossed cameo from a small local railroad

And the letter it contained, a nice bonus

The cover below is just a commemorative souvenir, but the cachet is a nice printed reproduction of an early cameo. Was the date significant?

US CONGRESS

This cover was sent by a representative of Congress. The train is there as a symbol of American Industry, I think - look at the Civil War Patriotics (below) and you will see similar designs.

US GOVERNMENT

These are envelopes used in collecting weather data - read the full story here. I suppose one could say they are not advertising covers, in the true sense, rather official envelopes with corner cards and cachets, but it seems clear to me they at least share common roots.

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