The designer of this 1930 advertising stationery didn’t know it yet, but the expression “Thriving Thirties” was not going to catch on. Printed by the Epsten Lithographing Co. of Omaha, the stationery could be printed as standard letterhead on one side, with the promotional piece (shown here) on the back.
NSHS RG2AM, Series 5, Box 1, Folder 146a
A cornucopia bursts from Nebraska, and train silhouettes surround it:
In the booster spirit, the language is wonderfully over-the-top:
Visions of the Thriving Thirties withered under a prolonged economic depression and severe drought, but that took time. We often look at the past with hindsight bias, as if on “Black Tuesday,” October 29, 1929, everyone knew–or that we would have known–that the Great Depression had begun.
At least the writer didn’t brag about Nebraska’s reliable rainfall.
—David Bristow, Associate Director / Publications
I think that it should also be noted that these were not necessarily outlandish claims. This was the time of Nebraska’s boom. Of growing population, and growing opportunity. Rail Barons summered in Beatrice, and Nebraska apples were selling off the shelf in Chicago.