Union Pacific Coloring Book '58 (PART ONE)

The biggest problem I have with 1950's coloring books is that they tend to have great covers but the artwork inside is mostly always a bit ho-hum. Not here. The initials "KW" on the cover of this Union Pacific Coloring Book from 1958 remain the only clue to whoever was responsible for the gloriously jagged line work, the swirly cheeked people, the water gun totin' bear, the smiling conductors, etc... it's all quite awesome. A brief intro from UPR states this coloring book was developed primarily for distribution on their trains (along with FREE crayons) so that youngsters on board would have something to occupy their time, combined with the educational value of teaching basic railroading with pictorial representations of western vacation regions. I'll have the final remaining pages of this coloring book in our next post, which also includes a few more pages hand colored by "Jeanne", whoever she was.

To be continued...