City of New Orleans poster, 1980s.
Full color printed paper poster advertising the City of New Orleans (New Orleans-Memphis-Chicago); dates to the early 1980s.
- Poster Details
-
- Date Archived:
- May 30, 2014
- Geography:
- Midwest
- Decade:
- 1980s
- Data Format:
- Image
- Route:
- City of New Orleans
- Download the full-sized version of this photo
The City of New Orleans retains the name of its predecessor, which was introduced by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1947. After Amtrak took over the nation's passenger rail services in 1971, the train was switched from a daytime schedule to an evening one for better connections at its endpoints; it was also renamed the Panama Limited. In February, 1981, Amtrak restored the City of New Orleans name, in part due to the popularity of a folk song with the same title recorded by Arlo Guthrie.
The poster's imagery highlights the three major cities found on the route - Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans - as well as blues and jazz music for which all three are famous. At the bottom is the phrase "America's Getting Into Training," the tagline for an advertising campaign launched in 1980.
From the Ann Owens Collection.
