Otto Hake painted Renascence in 1934, the year of the Pioneer Zephyr's debut. It served as the 1935 CB&Q calendar top. First and foremost, the painting is a technically accurate portrait of the Zephyr, but there is much symbolism in the painting. Zephyrus, the ancient Greek personification of the West Wind, appears in the clouds. In the background is the Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln, one terminus of the Zephyr's initial route. A farmer plowing his field with a horse-drawn plow, a dairy farm and group of grain elevators represent the granger country through which the Zephyr traveled. Could the two girls greeting the Zephyr have been inspired by the famous film of the Zephyr's dawn-to-dusk run on May 26, 1934?
Otto Eugene Hake was born on December 17, 1876 in Ulm, Germany. He immigrated to America at the age of 14 and studied, among other places, at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a longtime member, and president for three years, of Chicago's Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts. In addition to his private work, he also worked as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) muralist, and his murals appear in many prominent buildings in the Chicago area. Mr. Hake died on July 16, 1965 in Chicago, IL.
I scanned an original calendar top at 600dpi and 24-bit color on a Microtek 9800XL scanner in quadrants, manually stitched the four scans together and digitally touched up the image to remove tears, wrinkles, scuffs and smudges.
There is one visual difference from the original. Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, MN (at the time one of the largest calendar printers in the country) printed the 1935 calendar. On the original at the lower left corner of the printed border, are the words "Talio-Crome Trade-Mark / Reproduction Brown & Bigelow":
To avoid any misidentification I have replaced that wording with "Reprint 2008 American Lithographers" (who have printed posters for the California State Railroad Museum) in the closest font I could find:
The poster is printed using UV-resistant ink on 100-lb acid-free matte poster paper. The image (including the cream-colored border) is full-size relative to the 1935 calendar top, 23 x 22 inches. I have added a 2-inch white border all around to allow for matting, so the paper size is 27 x 26 inches.
I will ship the poster, rolled in a polyethylene bag, in a corrugated cardboard box.
The price of the poster is $30, plus $10 for shipping box and postage within the USA. For those of you in other parts of the world, please email me for your shipping cost. California residents please add $2.21 sales tax.
I accept Paypal from everyone, and personal checks from US residents are fine
(I will mail the poster after the check has cleared.) Please make checks out to:
Randy Gordon-Gilmore · 755 Rubier Way · Rio Vista, CA 94571-1259
This poster is authorized and licensed by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The "Burlington Route" mark is a licensed mark owned by BNSF Railway.
©2008 ProtoTrains Last updated 4 Oct 1008.