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Ho! for the Land of Orange Groves of Sunshine and Flowers!…

[A. Phillips & Co., ca. 1880.] Illustrated broadside, 25” x 9.5”, orange and black text within an orange border. CONDITION: Very good, light spotting to margins, two small losses and one closed tear along horizontal folds, the closed tear at lower right affecting “ta F” in “Santa Fe R.R.”

An apparently unrecorded broadside advertising excursions to California, organized by a Los Angeles company and featuring the luxurious sleeping cars of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, as shown in the illustration.

Printed partially—and fittingly—in orange ink, this broadside rallies would-be travelers to “the Land of Orange Groves,” listing seven dates of departure from Boston, Chicago, and Kansas City to the orange groves, sunshine, and flowers of California. Passengers are invited to join at any point along the route, and those boarding trains east of Kansas City “will be carried in First-class Coaches on Fast Express trains. From that point to California they will be transported in the beautiful SLEEPING CARS shown in cut herewith.” The illustration below shows the sleeping car, its elegantly decorated exterior emblazoned “A.T. & S.F. R.R. Emigrant Sleeping Car” and partially cut away to reveal passengers sitting, lounging, or lying fast asleep in their cots, their luggage tucked safely and efficiently under their seats. These “Excursion Parties” were run by A. Phillips & Co., in collaboration with the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Rail Road, and, as a perk, “The Phillips & Co. parties are carried on these Sleepers without extra expense for Berths.” Similarly, “Women and children” traveling with Phillips parties “can travel alone…with perfect security and free from care, one of the Managers always accompanying the excursions.”

A. Phillips & Co. advertised itself as “the oldest and best organized” of excursion companies, and was active from 1880—just over a decade after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad—to at least 1896 (“To California”), shuttling sight-seers from the “Sunrise Coast” to the “Golden Gate” (“Phillips Tourist Excursions”) with discounted fare and specially conducted cars. 

No holdings recorded in OCLC, nor do we locate any examples online or in Rare Book Hub.

A rare and appealing broadside from the dawn of popular railway tourism to California.

REFERENCES: “To California,” The Boston Globe, Nov. 23, 1895, p. 3; “Phillips Tourist Excursions” at the David Rumsey Map Collection online.

Item #9782

Price: $450.00

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