LOT North American Auction Company  /  New Year January Western Collector Auction  / 

508

1946 & 49 Great Northern Railroad Calendars

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 600.00 USD
1946 & 49 Great Northern Railroad Calendars
These are amazing calendars from the Great Northern Railroad Empire Builder Line. The first is from 1946, showing Julia Wades-in-Water. Julia Wades-in-Water was the wife of Wades-in-Water, the tribal sheriff for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. In 1905, after he became sheriff, she became the first Native American female police officer in the nation; she worked in that capacity for about 30 years. Curiously, instead of illustrating her life’s work, as the previous year’s calendar did for her husband, the borders of this calendar imitate the bead and leather work of her ceremonial clothing. It is quite attractive. Apparently starting with this calendar, the map under the calendar pad was replaced with a 500-or-so-word description of the person in the painting. This one says that Julia’s name was originally Under Owl Woman. Regarding her service as a policewoman, the summary simply states that she was the first female police officer in Montana. Printed along the bottom is, "Julia Wades-in-Water--Blackfeet Indian Woman--Glacier National Park, Montana Route of The Ampire Builder Between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest Via Glacier National Park”. The second calendar shows a middle aged Native woman, Bird Sings Different, in traditional dress, holding a buckskin beaded Parfleche bag she made. The print is bordered on the left and right with pictographs. The pictograph on the left shows a native woman fashioning herself a garment. In the second series of pictographs, a native woman is depicted building, and decorating with paints, a teepee. Printed along the bottom is, "Bird Sings Different--Blackfeet Indian Woman--Glacier National Park, Montana Route of the Streamlined Empire Builder”. The artwork on both calendars is by Winold Reiss. Winold Reiss was born in Germany in 1886. Following in the footsteps of his father, Winold became an artist, studying art in Munich. In 1913, Winold came to the United States with a romantic idealism of Native Americans and the vast Western Frontier. In 1919, Winold Reiss was in Montana, where he befriended Natives of the Blackfoot tribe. He made pastel portrait drawings of many of the Blackfeet he had met. Reiss was able to capture individual traits, as well as a high degree of human dignity; his portraits were sensitive and sympathetic depictions. Sometime after 1924, Reiss was commissioned by the Great Northern Railway to paint a series of portraits of Native Americans for a series of calendars. Reiss enjoyed a long partnership with the railroad, travelling many times to Glacier National Park. His works for the railway documented a people in transition and cultivated respect for the Natives. When he died in 1953, the Blackfeet spread his ashes along the eastern edge of Glacier National Park. The calendars have some damage along the edges of the paper, due to age. The calendars measure 16" X 33".
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