Moonlight in Duneland The Illustrated Story of the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad

Known as the "Little Train That Could" or "The Last Interurban", the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad has served the Northwest Indiana/Chicago area as a major commercial and recreational transportation link for 90 years. The South Shore Line has reflected the triumphs and misfortunes of the Calumet Region throughout the twentieth century. For its first two decades, it survived good times and bad until its landmark purchase by Samuel Insull's Midland Utilities in 1925. Insull launched an aggressive marketing campaign producing booklets, movies, and in particular a set of colorful, artistic posters, which attracted many from Illinois to Northwest Indiana's steel mills and sand dunes.

As many as fifty color lithographed posters displayed in railroad depots, on Chicago "L" platforms, and elsewhere, highlighted fun in the Indiana Dunes, local flora and fauna, and the strength of heavy industry, all characteristic of the Calumet Region. Prominent Chicago artists rendered these scenes and many won acclaim for high artistic standards. Indeed, Oscar Rabe Hanson's Homeward Bound by South Shore Line won both the Art Directors Club and Barron Collier medals in 1927.

Moonlight in Duneland tells the story of that poster campaign through the reproduction of more than forty known surviving posters. Additional advertising items from the 1920s and 1970s are sprinkled throughout the book, along with original art by Dale Fleming and Mitchell A. Markovitz. In addition, four essays describe the background of Insull's marketing genius and its artists. William D. Middleton's essay details Insull's purchase of the South Shore Line and its rebirth. Bob Harris, in "Not Just Selling Railroad Tickets: The Role of the South Shore Line Poster Art in the Development of Northwest Indiana," describes the hands-on, intense involvement of the railroad and its ad campaign in the industrial, residential, and recreational development of the Region. In "Commercial Illustration, Poster Painters, Railway Men," Mitchell A. Markovitz provides a glimpse into the poster artists' world, along with a personal memoir of his own experiences as a South Shore Line poster artist. Finally, John Paul Laue explains how a group of dedicated South Shore Line enthusiasts saved the road when it was threatened again with extinction in the 1970s in "South Shore Recreation: A Fun Way to Save a Railroad."

While Moonlight in Duneland pays tribute to eras gone by, it also debuts a new period of growth in Calumet Region pride and development. Sponsored by the Northwest Indiana Forum, new poster art has been commissioned to advertise the many wonders of the area. Several of those images grace the pages of this book, providing the reason for the slogan, "A Region in Renaissance."

"This is THE art coffee--table book of the year, one that is sure to bring gasps of delight..." --Branches Indiana University Press

"Elegant, engaging poster art." --Publishers Weekly Indiana University Press Indiana University Press Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

"Whether you live in Illinois or Indiana, California or New York, Moonlight in Duneland is one of those books you'll meander through again and again." --The International Railway Traveler Indiana University Press

Ronald D. Cohen, Professor of History at Indiana University Northwest, is the author of Children of the Mill: Schooling and Society in Gary, Indiana, 1906-1960, and the co author of The Paradox of Progressive Education as well as Gary: A Pictorial History. He is the editor of "Wasn't That A Time": Firsthand Accounts of the Folk Music Revival as well as Red Dust and Broadsides: A Joint Autobiography.

Stephen G. McShane has served as the archivist/curator at the Calumet Regional Archives, Indiana University Northwest since 1982. He has produced various works on history of Northwest Indiana, including Skinning Cats: The Wartime Letters of Tom Krueger (ed. With James B. Lane) and "We'll Stick with Dick: Earl Landgrebe, Watergate, and Vocal Minority"in Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, published by the Indiana Historical Society.

Victor Margolin, Associate Professor of Design History at the University of Illinois/Chicago, is the author of American Poster Renaissance: The Great Age of Poster Design, 1890-1900, The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, 1917-1946, as well as numerous other publications.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Letter from Speros A. Batistatos, South Shore Line Heritage Foundation

Letter from North Indiana Public Service Company

Foreword by Victor Margolin

One. Introduction by Ronald D. Cohen and Stephen G. McShane

Two. Insull's Super-Interurban by William D. Middleton

Three. Not Just Selling Railroad Tickets: The Role of the South Shore Line Poster Art in the Development of Northwest Indiana by Bob Harris

Four. Commercial Illustration, Poster Painters, Railway Men by Mitchell A. Markovitz

Five. South Shore Recreation: A Fun Way to Save a Railroad by John Paul Lane

The Posters

Suggestions for Further Reading

About the Artists

Poster Retailers

"Just Around the Corner"