Okay... we've all read or heard of the supposed origin of the Frisco Coonskin: According to J. Collias in his "Frisco Power" book, it was conceived in 1900 on account of some coonskins tacked up and drying on the side of the Neosho depot. Here's my problem: Wasn't there a Frisco wall calendar from the 1880s that had an artists rendering of two children waiting at a depot, and the coonskin outline with "FriscoLine" inside was also used on the calendar? Any Obi-Wan's out there that can help me?
Please see item #10 in this thread... http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/help-me-out.2227/#post-12901
Okay, those recollections (the lady that wrote the article and the linked info at Mike Condren's site) say the "late 19th century". So, it was definitely earlier than 1900 as Mr. Collias wrote. However, my question remains on the picture of an 1880s calendar: AM I remembering such a calendar correctly?
This collection of Timetables here at our own Frisco.org sheds some light on the subject: http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?media/albums/timetables.20/ In this collection, the earliest appearance of a very recognizable form of the Coonskin herald is 1893. However, you can also see very much a likeness of the basic Coonskin shape in the 1881 Timetable. Based on the above, I'm forming the opinion that the 1900 date is in error. There were already variations of the theme much earlier.
Andre, the calendar that you are referring to was from the 70's (I think 1976) and had the inset of the children in the upper corner of the calendar. I have the actual calendar somewhere in my stuff, but can't find it. However, I do have a decent picture of the art that you are referring to. If I find the calendar, I'll get an image of it posted. The inset art was entitled "Girl holding doll and boy with dog in waiting room at railroad station", and it was created by The Strobridge Litho Co., Cincinnati, O. in 1899. The original art has been digitized and is held by the Library of Congress.
On my office wall, I have a 1980 calendar that features the image that Keith has psoted along the top, along with the calendar from 1876, marked as "The First Year as St. Louis and San Francisco Ry." The bottom 2/3 of the calendar is the 1980 wall calendar, which shows GP38-2 #460 at the head of a lash-up (Ken Wulfert has posted the photo at http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/gp-38-slsf-633-enid-negative-collection.2999/) with the following text at the very bottom: 1876 - FRISCO . . . A NAME KNOWN FOR SERVICE FOR OVER A CENTURY - 1980 If I can scrounge up a camera I'll try to get a photo of it. It's pretty big and is framed in barnwood behind glass, so scanning is out.
