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POSTER: Australia,
China and Japan
Printed
by the Sacramento firm of H.S. Crocker, one of the brothers of Charles
Crocker, this poster, published shortly after the completion of the first
transcontinental railroad, offered merchant princes a new route linking
the Orient with Europe. Forming the first "land bridge" across the
United States, passengers boarding the Silver Palace Sleeping Cars were
whisked from San Francisco Bay to New York City in just six days and 20
hours.
Born in Massachusetts, Alban Nelson
Towne came to the Central Pacific in September 1869, from the Burlington
Railroad to begin his career with the C.P.R.R., first as General Superintendent
and then as General Manager of the successor Southern Pacific Company (Pacific
System). Moving with the Central Pacific from Sacramento to San Francisco
in 1873, he eventually built a fine residence at 1101 California Street
(Nob Hill). Though his mansion was consumed by the fire of 1906,
a physical memory still exists in the form of six Ionic columns which now
stand by Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park and, with a touch of nostalgia,
are called "The Portals of the Past."
This is Number Four of twelve Keepsakes issued during 1969 to its members by The Book Club of California in commemoration of the centennial of the transcontinental railroad. The series has been edited by David F. Myrick and designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.
Courtesy The Book Club of California.