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[New York? ca. 1871.]. Broadsheet, 16.75” x 9.75”. Map at verso, 6” x 13.5”. CONDITION: Good, 2.25” separation at center vertical old fold, one small chip at upper-right corner, brown stains at upper-right and lower-middle affecting verso as well.

A broadsheet promoting bond investment in the Northern Pacific Railroad Company during its first great construction push on the line, with a map at verso showing the projected rail line.

Founded in 1865, the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. only began breaking ground on construction in 1870 after receiving extensive financial backing from Jay Cooke & Co. The company offers here for sale at par and accrued interest the First Mortgage Land Grant Gold Bonds, described as “safe, profitable and permanent.” It turns out, of course, that the bonds were none of these things: Jay Cooke & Co. fell into bankruptcy just two years after this broadsheet was published—“one of the major factors precipitating the Panic of 1873.” The railroad followed in 1875, and was not completed until 1883. Free of U.S. tax, the bonds optimistically advertised here were issued in the following denominations: “Coupons, $100, $500, and $1000; Registered, $100, $500, $1000, $5000, and $10,000.”

The text covers a wide range of topics for prospective investors: Gold Payment (“both principal and interest are payable in American gold coin”); The Rate of Interest (“a most convenient as well as profitable one”); Perfect Safety (“First Mortgage Railroad Bonds are confessedly among the safest of investments”); The Land Grant (“larger than six New England States with Maryland added”); Emigration Scheme (at this time the North Pacific R.R. Co. was organizing a Department of Emigration to facilitate emigration to the Northwest); The Road Now Building (“work was begun in July last on the eastern portion of the line”); Future Business of the Road (“The business of the Road, immediately on its completion and even during construction, will be very large”); The Mortgage (“the proceeds of all sales of First Mortgage Bonds are devoted to the construction and equipment of the road, and…the proceeds of land sales are used in purchasing and canceling the bonds of the company”); Profitableness of Northern Pacific 7-30’s (“we call the attention of those who desire to increase their income while still having a perfectly reliable investment”), and so on.

The map on the verso extends from Wisconsin and Lake Michigan in the east to California and the Pacific Ocean in the west, and from Colorado in the south to Manitoba, Canada in the north. Shown as completed, the Northern Pacific Railroad runs from St. Paul, Minnesota to the west coast.

REFERENCES: “Untitled [Northern Pacific Railroad],” Private Collection of P. J. Mode at Cornell University Library Digital Collections.

Item #7706

Price: $375.00